My Grandma and Grandpa (my mom's parents) lived in Ohio and Michigan my whole life. Before that, they both actually were born and grew up in Philadelphia. In fact, my Grandpa used to take the same train from the same train station that I did when I was living in Chestnut Hill, because they're house was just around the corner! One weekend my mom came to visit me and we spent the day driving around Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, and Northeast Philly, looking at all the places where my grandparents lived. It was pretty cool to see all of that.
Anyway. As I said, they lived in Ohio and Michigan for my entire life. We spent every Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. Those road trips are some of my best memories - me, Mom, Dad, and my sister, driving along the Turnpike in whatever incarnation of the VW Bus we had at the time (seriously...my family has owned Volkswagon vans since before I was born), singing songs, playing games, reading books, and torturing each other. Well, that last one might have been more me and my sister than my parents, but...you know. I used to love driving out there because it meant we were going to get to hang out with our grandparents and cousins. I miss those road trips.
Grandma passed away when I was in high school. She had Alzheimer's, and was pretty out of it by the end. Because of how far away they lived, and then because of the Alzheimer's, I really never felt like I knew her very well. Once she died, we started hearing all these great stories about her. Listening to my mom and uncles talk about her, I realized that Grandma was a social worker without being a Social Worker. I wish that I'd known her better, but, well, that's life. Grandpa is still living, at the retirement community where he'd moved Grandma when she started getting sick. He's 95 and still goes to the gym a few times a week. He's healthy as a horse, and has so many incredible stories to tell. Grandpa is a pretty cool dude.
When Grandpa and Grandma got engaged, they didn't have a lot of money. So the ring he bought her was pretty simple. A few years later, they upgraded. My sister got married first, so she got the first ring. I got the second engagement ring. When my mom gave it to me, it looked as old as it was. The diamond was cloudy, and the gold was flat. But I took it with me last week when Matt and I went to Steven Singer to shop for wedding bands, and they cleaned it for me.
The cool part of this (aside from the obvious sentimental factor) is that it's engraved. It's kind of hard to read, but it says F.H.H. to C.D.H. 7-13-40. The band also has the same engraving on it, but because of where they got bridged together, you can't read most of it.
And here's my silly attempt at a fancy photo shoot. 
As you can see, I wasn't very impressed with myself and gave up after one photo. Hee hee. I'm really touched to have this for our wedding day. Matt and I talked about re-setting the diamond some time in the future - maybe for our 5th or 10th Anniversary.
*all personal photos
That's so sweet! I love that it's engraved!
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