I read an article in the Reader’s Digest about why some married couples wear their wedding rings and others do not. Those who wear them regularly view the wedding ring as an important symbol of love and commitment. One lady decided to clean her rings. She carefully placed them aside on a tissue. Only later did she realize she’d thrown them out with the trash.
The sanitation department gave her permission to go through the trash at the landfill site. The women, her husband, and two sanitation workers dug through 800 bags of trash filled with garbage. She found her rings. Their value to her motivated her to do what she would probably never have considered doing otherwise.
The actual value of the ring isn’t as important as what it means to the couple. A ring symbolizes two lives coming together as one in love and caring and in planning a future together. A ring may remind a couple to work together, spend time together and treat each other with love and respect, even when dealing with difficulties of personality or circumstances–some beyond their control.
Those who regularly wear a wedding ring often do not want to take it off, even when the nurse comes to your bedside before surgery asking you to remove your ring. The staff explains that if your finger swells during surgery, there could be problems.
I have undergone more surgeries than I can even remember. I’ve had hip and knee replacements, with those being replaced several times, screws in my ankles, and any other number of surgeries. I never had to give up my ring for my surgeries and for a very good reason.
When Keith and I shopped for wedding rings, we found what we were looking for at a local jeweler. Our rings weren’t expensive. We didn’t have much. We chose simple engraved gold bands.
My hands are gnarled from arthritis. Slipping on a ring wasn’t going to be simple. In fact, it was downright impossible. There was no way Keith would be able to slip that ring on my finger at the wedding. The jeweler came up with a solution. If he turned the circle into an oblong, he could work it onto my finger. But, once it was on, there would be no way to get it off short of cutting it off.
Sounded like a good plan. It meant I wore the ring for about a week before we got married and Keith faked putting it on my finger at the wedding. As for my surgeries, because of its oblong shape, I showed the nurses how much room there was in case of swelling. From then on, they simply taped it down. I still wear that ring. It carries over 40 years of memories.
We’ve been through good times and some not-so-good times because life isn’t all sunshine and roses. However, we’ve come through those times with faith, prayer, commitment…and together. A ring that cost thousands couldn’t mean as much as this ring we chose with such love. It does not surprise me that someone might go to great length to retrieve a lost ring. After all, for us, our wedding rings are a reminder of the vows we took so long ago and still mean, “With this ring, I thee wed…”
Published in the Kearney Hub 4/9/18 as “With this ring, I commit for life”
By Carolyn R Scheidies