The Rings

I will have to give a little background for this one. My Nanny started coming to my church when I was older...like late High School. She had always gone somewhere else before, but taking care of her mother, Mimmie, did not allow her to go for awhile. After Mimmie passed away, she had not really gone back, and I was wondering why. So one day I asked her to come to our church, and she did. The Sundays that I was in town from college, I would always sit by her and my parents in the service. She had these beautiful rings...one remade from all the diamonds in her wedding set, one from Mimmie's set, a gorgeous sapphire ring, and a pink stone ring she got when she graduated from high school from her parents. I would always mess with her rings and try them on. Usually during the service I would have on the pink stone ring the whole time. It was just the thing we did. When my Nanny suddenly had an allergic reaction to several antibiotics doctors gave her to fight bronchitis and pneumonia, my mom took her to the ER because her fever was 104. That was the last time she was at home. The reaction was misdiagnosed, more antibiotics were administered, and she died about 10 days later from Steven-Johnsons. When we got back home, we knew we had to go to her house. None of us wanted to, but we had to do it. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life. To see her datebook out with a pen beside it, showing all the upcoming things she had going on, a little purse she had set aside for Makenna when we came home next, her clothes, her life, her food waiting in the fridge, the chair she last sat in...it was too much. We knew she had always told us to go to the safety deposit box if anything happened to her. What she left out was where the key was! We looked everywhere, and as we were on the hunt, we started thinking about her rings. They were not on her dresser, not in the bathroom, not anywhere. We tried to remember if she had them on the night she called with the high fever, and just assumed she had to have had on some of them. Looking everywhere imaginable...drawers, cabinets, under beds, every nightstand, every purse, we came to the conclusion that someone must have taken them at the hospital when she was admitted. It was heartbreaking for all of us. Just one more thing gone in the blink of an eye. The days went by, filled with planning, crying, grieving, and just barely making it. Eventually, we sold her little house, which she had just bought a few years before and LOVED decorating, and had to move her things out. The lady who bought the house wanted to buy the couches, so that was all that was staying. On the last day my mom and aunt went over to finish the rest of the things and to clean. They asked me to go, but I could not do it. They were gone for what seemed like forever. It was their last time in her house, and I knew they were working hard and savoring those last moments full of memories and tears. When they got back I was sitting on Mom's couch watching tv. They walked in and said,"You are not going to believe this." I knew it was the rings and immediately started crying. Mom was holding up a black velvet bag, and inside were all the rings and special jewelry Nanny had owned. I put on "my" little pink ring. "Where was it?" I asked. They had loaded up every piece of furniture in the house and were vacuuming each room. They had all walked back into every room to vacuum and to make sure nothing was left anywhere. My aunt wanted to go back into Nanny's room one more time, and lying on the empty floor was the black velvet bag, all by itself. We did not even know she had a velvet bag, and why would she put the rings she wore everyday inside some velvet bag before she was taken to the hospital? How did they appear in a completely empty room? We have no idea, but from then on we knew it was going to be alright. Awful, heartbreaking, and lonely, but alright. We received a gift of sweet surprise, our very own miracle, just when my family needed it most. I think sometimes that I would love to know how it happened, but I am sure when I get to heaven that will be the last thing on my mind! I have the ring, and it will be Makenna's when she turns 16. Her miracle ring.