Three
Jewels from my Treasure Store
“Aha, Kathleen! I think you’ve got something to tell us!” exclaimed Helen, who was sitting at the opposite end of the table from me. It was teatime at the Guild meeting in the church hall. The other four ladies paused as they passed round the plate of home-made cakes, and looked at me enquiringly. Helen gave me a knowing smile. “Go on, tell us the good news!”
Puzzled, I replied, “I would if I knew what you mean!” Helen lifted her left hand and wiggled her ring finger. I looked down at my own ring finger, where the diamonds on my engagement ring were twinkling brightly, as if new. Helen, knowing that I was a widow, must have noticed that I was no longer wearing my wedding ring, and seeing the diamond ring, must have assumed that I had recently got engaged to a ‘new man’.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I have no nice romantic tale to tell!” I said with a chuckle.
However, the following day I found myself writing a little note to Helen, telling her of a ‘follow-up’ coincidence! When I woke up that morning I had smiled down at my left hand, remembering Helen’s assumption about the ring. As soon as I left my bedroom I had, as usual, gone straight to the bookcase opposite, to change the date on the French 365-day calendar. To my astonishment, this is what I saw!
I couldn’t resist telling Helen about this delicious coincidence – even though I suspected that, as a retired nursing sister known for her forthright, no-nonsense opinions, she would possibly dismiss it as mere fantasy. But to me it was a precious reminder of another, earlier coincidence concerning a ring plus the French calendar.
Bob, my dear husband, had died on the 26th of June, the day before our 23rd wedding anniversary. Every year since, I have felt very sad on June 26, but then, on the next day, 27 June, I have gratefully thanked God for the joy of our wedding day! However, this has been more difficult on the special anniversaries which we would have been celebrating along with our contemporaries. I discovered that two years after his death, when we would have been enjoying our Silver Wedding day together.
Fifteen years later I was bracing myself to face the date of our Ruby Wedding when, very early in the morning of 21st June (Midsummer!) I awoke to ‘hear’ a mysterious instruction: “Take off your wedding ring!”
This was something which I had never wanted to do. Moreover, taking it off was by now more or less impossible because my ring finger had swollen over the forty years since our wedding day. I knew that the ring could probably be enlarged, but I feared that the jeweller might cut through the inscription on the inside: RB – KIH. 31.1.64 (the official date of our engagement.) However, after ‘hearing’ the instruction, I thought that, given the constriction on that finger, it was probably now time to take the risk, and to have the ring made bigger. But I still hesitated.
“Maybe I’ll do it later, when I get up”, I thought. But then it was somehow impressed on me: “No, do it NOW!” So, I sleepily fetched soap, a damp cloth and some Vaseline, and after several minutes of struggle, eventually managed to pull off my precious gold wedding ring.
Carefully I held it up between my right thumb and my index finger, in the light of the bedside lamp, trying to see if the inscription was still legible. (It was, fortunately). Before I went back to sleep, I tenderly placed the ring in the little box containing Bob’s wedding ring, a bigger version of mine – the ring which he had always insisted on wearing, even in hospital during his operations to have cancer cells removed.
When I got up a few hours later I went, as usual, to change the date on the French calendar – and was amazed to see another woman holding a ring between her right thumb and index finger! The picture, which dates from the Middle Ages, was taken from a prayer book created for the Duc de Berry. The young woman has just received the betrothal ring (alliance), which will be her wedding ring, from her princely suitor.
The joy of this astonishing ‘coincidence’ carried me through the next few days of our Ruby Wedding week, and I humbly thanked God for that blessing.
Our two wedding rings lay together in their little box for almost ten years. Every day I put on my engagement ring as a replacement for the wedding ring. As the date of our Golden Wedding drew near, I finally had my ring enlarged to fit my finger. The inscription remained intact. (I should have trusted the jeweller’s skill!)
One morning, in the last week of June, I awoke to another silent ‘message’. This time it was in French! I ‘heard’ “Je brede le tapis”. As I visualised how I would write this, it was impressed on me that the first ‘e’ in brede would require a grave accent, (in accordance with the rule that this vowel has to be strengthened in a single syllable word ending in a silent ‘e’! As I’m sure you know, dear reader!!) So, the word would be pronounced ’’b-red”, but I didn’t know what it meant! I had never seen this word before. ‘Le tapis’ means ‘the carpet or rug or mat’. Perhaps there was a connection with ‘embroidery’? I thought. Could it mean ‘I embroider the rug’? But, if so, why? And anyway, I remembered that the French for ‘to embroider’ is ‘broder, with the letter ‘o’! As I puzzled over this verbal conundrum, it was again impressed on me that the second word had to have “red” in it. Time to consult my splendid big Larousse dictionary! No sign of a verb ‘breder’, so I turned to the word ‘tapis’ – and TING! – I saw the picture I just knew that I was meant to see!
On the same page as the picture of a beautiful ‘tapis’ there was one illustrating a medieval tapestry. Entitled ‘L’offrande du coeur’ (The offering of the heart), it shows a man in princely costume (note the shoes!) offering something to the lady of his choice. Between his right thumb and index finger he is holding out a red heart!
Jesus said: “How blest are the sorrowful; they shall find consolation.” (Matt 6,v 4)
and “Dwell in my love. If you heed my commands, you will dwell in my love, as I have heeded my Father’s commands and dwell in his love. I have spoken thus to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete.” (John 15, vv 10, 11)
Deo
gratias
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