The object that I have chosen to describe and tell you it’s meaning to me is my wedding ring.  I have been married for 29 years, just last week, September 20.  I actually have two pictures of my ring.  The first one is my original wedding set.  After twenty five years, the band on me wedding ring broke so my husband said that he wouldn’t mind if I made a new design for my wedding set.  

The second picture is my wedding band that I had designed and made.  It’s a one of a kind ring.  It is made of 14 kt. Gold and diamonds.  The center stone is 1 carat, with the surrounding stones consisting of  two ½ carat diamonds, four 1/4 carat diamonds, and six 1/8 carat diamonds.  I had this ring made in 2016 so it is four years old. 

This ring was made by Ware Jewelers for me. It’s made by melting the gold and putting in into a mold for the ring shape.  The diamonds are added after the gold has cooled.  They are placed specifically, and gold is added around the top edges to keep the diamonds from becoming loose.

Wedding rings are made all over the world and are a symbol of being married.  They show other people that you are in a committed relationship.  Wedding bands are circular, meaning that the love is never-ending, although that isn’t always the case.

Wedding bands have a cultural, religious, and social significance.  People in most parts of the world wear them. In American society, people wear their rings on their left hand, but in Japan and other parts of the world, the wedding band is worn on the right hand.

The only time that I have not worn my wedding ring was when I had surgery and when I had it remade.  I felt naked and uncomfortable not wearing it.  I was always anxious to have it back on my finger.

Wedding rings come in a multitude of metals and stones.  Each person can pick what they would like to have their ring made of and what color and shape the stone will be.  The carat size is also a major factor, as the larger the carat, the higher the price.  Diamonds and sapphires are the most expensive stones.

I wear my wedding band with pride.  I have a great husband who is loving and kind.  He has never criticized anyone and is compassionate and giving.  I have hit the Jackpot!  After twenty nine years together, he is still my best friend.  We do a lot of things together but also are comfortable doing things with our friends on our own.  I trust him completely and I know he feels the same way. 

I believe a historian in a hundred years would think that people held marriage in high regard and cherished the wedding ring as a symbol of love and fidelity.

This is a story that David wrote for a newspaper that he was the publisher for….I hope you like it!  This is a true story.

Want to wish my wife Barbara Jane Fowler-Dismukes Happy Anniversary today! A few years ago I wrote this and thought I would share…

Ball & Chain

I shoulda’ known, if anybody should have known, it should have been me. I mean all of the signs were there. No, not just the sign on the building, but ‘THE’ signs, the bars (not the drinking at kind)… steel bars, prisoners in jump suits stamped ‘Property of Liberty County Jail’, guards and a even a judge. Anyone would have thought, I was about to be jailed, thrown in the slammer, sent up the river… ball and chained. But, the one thing I didn’t see in that rustic, small brick building in Hinesville, Georgia in 1991, was the ball and chains.

Thing was, I wasn’t there to be locked up, roughed up, beat up or chained up… I was there to get hitched up. Yep, I was there to jump the broom. I t does always bring out the curiosity in everyone when the question comes up, “Where did you guys get married?” When either my wife or I respond, “We got married in jail,” there’s no getting away or out of the conversation without an explanation. 

The explanation, is not as intriguing as one may think. Returning from Desert Storm, I had found the true love of my life and the Army had given me orders to Germany. We knew we wanted to get married, but Uncle Sam decided to get things going faster and moved the time up. So, that September morning we decided it was time to go see the judge. The judge, wasn’t at the courthouse, she was at the jailhouse. Neither of us being the patient type and waiting for her to return, we kindly told the clerk, we’d meet her there… at the jailhouse.

On the way, we passed the First Baptist, First Methodist and the First Presbyterian Church of the greater city of Hinesville. But, we were about to overcome and triumph our imagination over intelligence. Since I’d grown up Baptist and she Methodist, we figured neutral ground would best be in the county jail.

Today, looking back over the years, those locks and bars signifies something more than their cold, black steel. They represent the solid relationship that forged our marriage. The security we have with one another. Not the security like Otis Campbell in Mayberry when after his regular nightly drinking binges, he would lock himself in the town jail until he sobered up. (Whether he did this because his wife would not let him come home drunk, or because the penalty for public intoxication. Who will ever know but Otis.)

One thing for sure, a long secure and loving relationship is the ball and chains I discovered years ago and is what keeps me in the chains I never want to be released from.

Original Wedding Set

Custom Wedding Ring