When my maternal grandmother, Helen (Thompson) Weigand, was a child in the 1920s, she had a severe case of pneumonia that caused her to miss a lot of school. To lift her spirits and show they were thinking of her, Helen’s teacher and classmates each brought in what money they could, and together they purchased her a small gold ruby ring.

Helen treasured the gift always, but over the years the ruby was somehow lost. When she passed, my parents received the ring in its original jeweler’s box and displayed it along with other family heirlooms.

For some reason, this story stuck with my youngest daughter, Brenna, from the first time she heard it years ago, and it became her goal in life to fix the ring. This winter she finally got her chance.

My parents became snowbirds for the first time, spending two months in Florida from the middle of January to the middle of March. Bren took the opportunity to drive the one and a half hours to their house in Wendell, get the ring, and drive the one and a half hours back to our house.

She took the ring to a jeweler to get the ruby replaced and was told they would first have to repair the ring before they could replace the gemstone. She then found out how much rubies cost.

The ring had been originally set for a four millimeter princess cut stone, which is a large stone and an expensive cut. Wanting to keep it as original as possible, she told the jeweler to move forward with the repair. Keep in mind that Bren is a 19-year-old college student with a part time job, and the total cost for the ring repair and gem replacement was now in the multiple hundreds.

Her goal was to have the ring ready so she could surprise her grandpa with it when they stopped by our house on their return home from Florida. She could hardly wait to see how it turned out, so she was devastated when the jeweler called and informed her they’d broken the ruby when they were mounting it into the setting and would have to order a new one.

Knowing the story behind the ring, the jeweler put a rush on it and was able to complete it on time. Bren picked it up just before my parents left Florida. It was beautiful.

Then the pandemic started in the U.S., and people were told to shelter in place and not gather in groups. Due to their age and some health issues, my parents are considered vulnerable, and we all determined it would be best if they just headed home without stopping in Clearwater to visit.

Fortunately, they made the drive back to Wendell safely and have stayed healthy since then. Unfortunately, we still haven’t been able to see them, so Bren hasn’t yet been able to gift her grandpa with her surprise. They still have no idea the gift that’s awaiting them.

Family, including those not with us any longer, have always been important to my parents. They passed that tenet down to me, and I passed it down to my children. Bren and my dad have shared a close bond since she was young, and I know he is going to be emotional that she did all of it on her own.

Never forget it’s the little things in life that mean the most. Actions don’t have to cost hundreds of dollars like Brenna’s did, they just have to come from the heart.