A Diamond Is For … Ten Years

After spreading light, peace, joy and good will in my blog post yesterday, I have little to say today — Mostly because yesterday I did not one thing but sit at my desk and edit copy for that 16^th Century Puritan Diary.

So, I got to wondering about the past.

I know that on May 3rd in 1901, the Great Fire burned Jacksonville down, but I wasn’t there. I’ve just heard about it and wrote about it in my fire department history book..

So I got to wondering what I was doing myself ten years ago today.

I pulled some of my old journals down out of the closet and found that ten years ago this week, I was buying a diamond.

Here’s my journal entry for...

Thursday, May 1, 1997:

Enjoyed lunch with my friend Barbara at Lucky Dragon.

Afterwards, a lady in Avondale told us about a jewelers, Nicholaas Alexander Ltd. This is a showroom for custom-made diamonds and gold trinkets. Carol, the young woman there, spent about 30 minutes telling us about how to go about ordering a necklace for my daughter Eve, who wants a diamond as a graduation present.

I was not about to make such an important decision without consulting Ginny so as soon as she got off work, we visited the showroom. Even though it was after closing time, Carol spent about 45 minutes going over the order with Ginny and me -- all this for a $200 diamond when the cheapest other diamond I saw there cost $1,300!

Friday, May 2, 1997:

Spent the day pittering around the house cleaning up for Donald and Pandora's visit -- need not have bothered. They brought in loads of laundry from college and spread it all over the living room.

As soon as Gin got off work, we rushed to Nicholaas Alexander Ltd. to pick up Eve's diamond -- a ten point, round cut stone. Again Carol spent about 45 minutes after closing time to educate us about fine jewelry.

She brought out charts and showed us the four Cs of diamonds: Carat, Color, Clarity and Cut.

She had hand-picked Eve's diamond from those available and set it in a white gold mounting herself.

It happened that her boss happened by to see why there was still someone in the store after closing hours. I told him about Carol's service to us and what an asset she is to his business:

Why just tell the employee that you're pleased when you can tell the boss in her presence and thus not only make her feel good but improve her standing in the eyes of the boss?

If Elizabeth Taylor had gone in this store to buy a diamond tiara to wear to the Oscars, she would not be treated a bit better than Ginny and I were!

I have told several other people about how pleased we are also -- especially since the first jewelry store we checked out, Underwood’s, treated us like tramps off the street and actually had a guard stand over me while I looked at the display cases and the sales lady acted like I was something she blew out of her nose.

Guess where I plan to buy my next diamond?

Gin and I will celebrate out 30th anniversary in November … Humm.

Saturday, May 3, 1997:

Eve graduated from college this morning!

I am very pleased with her accomplishment. Gin and I treated her and 12 others, family and friends, to lunch at Blue Boys. Donald & Pandora, Jennifer and Pat, Marcy and her mother and sister, several other young people I don't know and a host of well-wishers, including Eve's friend Chris, who drove down from Maryland just for her Graduation.

Only Patricia was not there though she was invited.

I gave out the hats Aunt Hazel made for everybody in imitation of MY HAT and the kids hooted over them!

Eve added a lace veil to hers..

Afterwards Gin & I collapsed at home and I prepared to teach the Adult Bible Class Sunday School lesson for tomorrow by cutting out flannel-graph figures related to Gideon and Judges.

Sunday, May 4, 1997:

Didn't use the flannel-graph lesson I'd prepared.

Instead, this morning about 5 a.m. I awoke thinking of a Cub Scout trick involving taking a sheet of notebook paper and cutting a hole in it big enough for a man to walk through.

Since the lesson was about faith, I used this demonstration (I had everybody cut one out for themselves and step through it) to show that faith is not believing an impossible thing, but believing a trustworthy Person.

Over the ten years since those diary entries, Eve went on to earn a scholarship to study in London then returned to the U.S. to earn her Master’s degree. She is now a head librarian and engaged to marry an attorney.