Chapter 97: Family Heirlooms

Saturday, February 15, 1986

We hit the road after breakfast with Camille and Francis. After picking up Angie and Paige, we headed off to our appointments.

I had been right. Hauptmann’s Jewelers, our first stop of the day (and Dad’s contribution), wasn’t really ready for us, no matter that we’d made it clear there were three heirloom rings being redone for three brides-to-be, and that two of those brides-to-be were marrying each other. It wasn’t that they fumbled anything — I liked the people we talked to, and thought they had some good ideas — but they clearly hadn’t quite realized that we would be both picky and knowledgeable about what we wanted. They tried to pitch several ideas before finally focusing on the designs we’d already come up with.

After we got through the miscommunication, their rough proposal looked perfectly fine, but their competitors had a clear opening. They would fax us a final proposal within the next few days. I was fine with that. This was a complicated undertaking, after all, and they needed to really sit down and work out materials thicknesses, price the stones we needed to add for some of the rings, and offer alternatives.

Brightman’s, our second stop and one Anderson had recommended, didn’t take the opening. Perhaps it was poor communication with the ring designer we’d talked to, or perhaps he had trouble taking four young adults seriously, but all four of us felt as if he was focusing too much on keeping costs down. As with Hauptmann’s, they only had a draft proposal, but it felt a bit too inexpensive to be plausible.

We wouldn’t write them off until their final proposal fax arrived, but I wasn’t overly optimistic.

We stopped for lunch at Fuddruckers, which we hadn’t been to in a long time, and discussed proposals while trying to not mess our clothes up with messy burgers. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best choice for lunch...

We avoided disaster, though.

We were optimistic about this afternoon. If we didn’t like any of the four, we could just keep trying, but most likely one of them would work out.

Our third stop was Keller’s Jewelers, Anderson’s second recommendation. Things immediately went better than before. Their primary designer, Carl Meyer, quizzed us in some detail about our goals in terms of quality and price before moving on to the actual designs. We obviously couldn’t discuss dollar amounts, but I think we were on the same page: quality pieces of jewelry that would last a lifetime with usual daily wear and be resistant to common sorts of damage. If a ring wound up worn and had to be remade again, that was fine. We didn’t need them to last two lifetimes. But just swinging an arm so as to make one hit a wall by accident shouldn’t result in a search for broken-off gemstones or pieces of gold. It should take some real doing to significantly damage anything.

Given the way the rings would look, that was a concern. Jas’s jasmine petals were all potentially breakable. So were the spirals on Paige’s and Angie’s design.

For the extra gems, we agreed they should be consistent in quality with the existing ones. The minor stones weren’t ‘the best,’ but they were of good quality. The additions should feel like they belonged with the others.

After some head-scratching, Angie and Paige tentatively agreed on tiny emeralds and sapphires to start the spirals. On Angie’s, with the emerald on top, the diamond spiral would go left. For Paige’s, with the sapphire on top, the diamond spiral would go right. That would make them not mirror images of each other. In fact, they would almost certainly wear them complementing each other, one with the emerald next to the pinkie, the other with the sapphire in that position.

Even before we left, I felt like this was our best bet, but we would find that out for sure when we got the fax with the final version of their proposal.

The jeweler gently nudged me about my own ring, but I didn’t want to make any decisions now. Jas and I had a year and a bit to agree on my wedding band. It seemed likely that our bands would have a nod to each other somewhere, but it might be on the inside.

Our last stop was Terra Nova Jewelry. We liked them, in general, but not as much as Keller’s. They had quality products and some interesting styles. I could easily see us coming back here and spending quite a bit of money.

That, maybe, was the point. Even if they didn’t get our business this time, our options for future purchases were greatly increased. They easily beat out any jewelry business we’d seen before today in terms of their own designs, and that spoke well of them.

As expected, everyone was the most positive about Keller’s. We all felt it was very likely that at least they, and maybe one or two of the others, would produce quality proposals. That made today, and this trip, a success.

The four of us were all staying with Mom and Dad tonight. As far as I knew, no one was planning to take advantage of our newfound ‘fooling around’ freedom tonight. We could, but we wouldn’t.

We agreed: we would discuss jewelers, but not ring designs. Also, Paula was a topic for later. Once our wills were complete, we would disclose their existence but not the details of them. Copies of the wills would be in at least two places: the safe in my closet and a safe deposit box.

We planned to give each set of parents a one-page summary of important information and locations. The safe would remain a secret, at least for now, but the safe deposit box would be highlighted. It provided a good starting point on the treasure hunt that would result from their trying to unravel our secrets.

I planned to add the parents and in-laws to the safe deposit box access list. That would allow them to get in without the estate going into probate (something we intended to avoid as much as possible, should the worst come to pass). We would have someone (Kyle seemed likely) hold a key to it with instructions to provide it if and when needed. Avoiding temptation just seemed like the best approach.

If we died simultaneously (which certainly could happen), the parents could get into it and find the wills. Sadly, the most important bequests would all be meaningless in that case, but at least we would get what we wanted. If any of us were alive, though, it would be easy for those still alive to retrieve copies of the appropriate will.

Paula would also have copies, just in case. We intended to stick with her, so it made sense for her to keep copies.

Under the law, we could amend them on the fly, either in our own handwriting or by notarizing a typed copy with at least two disinterested witnesses. That might well happen. You never know what might come up, and it’s best to keep wills up to date. I’d been there, done that with Dad’s will, which had been ‘good enough’ but really should have been updated.

As we neared the house, Angie said, “I’ve decided. I’m going to bring up Sharon at some point tonight.”

Paige hugged her and said, “I think it’ll go well.”

“We’re all there with you,” Jas said.

“We are, always,” I said.

“Which matters a lot,” Angie said. “I never would have gotten to this point without all of you supporting me.”

“All for one, one for all!” we all said.

Mom and Dad had a surprise for us when we got home. They’d gotten both photos and a video recording of our proposals. The photos were great, and we definitely wanted copies made of them. They were from at least four different angles. Some must have been Tony’s, based on the angle, but the others highlighted different things. Tony’s showed Angie and me much better than most of the others, though one set was pretty good at that, but his weren’t as good at showing Jas and Paige’s faces as some of the others.