Questioning my actions...

During the course of our marriage, we have moved three times across state lines, and all of them were fairly significant relocations. We were also fortunate to have my company move us. 

By the third move to CA, we had it down. We obtained the boxes from the moving company; packed each room and labeled each space; and we were ready for the movers to pick up everything. There were very few things that didn’t get packed into the moving truck, which were important house and moving documents; Konig and Zoe, our two beautiful German Shepherd dogs; and our jewelry.

Prior to moving, we came out to visit to look for a home to rent, but it was difficult to find a homeowner that would rent to us with two large dogs. We then decided to rent a cottage from a friend for a few months while we spent the time looking for a home. After three months, we finally found a beautiful home that accepted our gentle giants. 

While we were in the cottage, we kept most of our furniture and non-essentials in storage. It was not the safest area, and we didn’t have a safe or a safety box, so we kept our jewels hidden. During the three months at the cottage, I can recall various times when I heard helicopters circling in the skies above us.

Three months later, we moved into a house. The day of the move, we got to the house early to prepare for the movers to come. A few months earlier, we had heard a few horror stories from other friends who had movers help them and their jewelry came up missing. Given this, I took our wedding rings and our other special jewelry and put them in the jewelry box and hid them within our bedroom closet. 

The next day was Sunday, which I remember vividly. We were getting ready for church and as usual, I went to pull the jewelry box out from behind the clothes and as I opened the box, my heart sank as our wedding rings and other jewelry were gone. My other jewelry was there, but nothing that I would miss.

I immediately called out to my husband and said “Hon, do you remember me putting our rings in the jewelry box and hiding them behind the clothes? Now they’re gone!”

By this time, we needed to leave for church, and we agreed that we would look in the closet later to see if they fell out of the jewelry box. We had a speaker at church that day, but the intrusive thoughts of our rings kept plaguing my mind. I also was tracking my movements in my head over and over.  I kept thinking to myself “I know that I put my jewelry in the jewelry box, didn’t I?”

After church, we came home and again checked the jewelry box and the surrounding area of the closet, and the rings were nowhere to be found. At that point, I was so sad and started sobbing uncontrollably. 

The natural conclusion we came to was that the movers stole our jewelry. The next day we filed a claim through our renters’ insurance.

A few weeks later, we got temporary rings until we could replace them. Two years had passed, and we hadn’t replaced our rings, given the busyness of life.  However, periodically, I would think about my wedding ring because it had great significance for me. It not only symbolized my love and commitment for my husband, but also as he was the one who designed my ring.    

Then on one faithful day, we were getting ready to go somewhere that required more formal attire and my husband needed a suit. He went to grab his dress shoes and noticed an older pair of shoes in the closet. As moved the shoes, a black velvet pouch fell out. He called out to me in such a manner that I thought something was seriously wrong. As I entered the room, he was smiling from ear to ear and said, “Can you guess what I just found?” Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about. As soon as he showed me our rings, I couldn’t help but let the tears of joy flow down my cheeks. 

We then talked again about that infamous day two years ago when I hid the jewelry; however, as I contemplated on that day, I had now vaguely remembered putting them in the shoe. My question to my husband was, “If I now remembered where I put our jewelry, why didn’t I remember it back then? Why did we have to go through all of this to find it two years later?” Of course, I was and continue to be extremely grateful that I still have my original wedding ring, but I just wondered why it happened this way. As we continued to talk further about this, I realized that I must have thought about putting it in the jewelry box initially but then decided it would be too obvious. I’m sure that it was a very stressful time, which caused me to forget where I put our jewels.

Moral of the story: When you’re undergoing a major change in life, make a checklist or a note to tell yourself where you hid your precious jewels.