Unrequited rings and things

by kifert, ridgefield, CT

Christmas of 1979, I told my boyfriend of several years NOT to propose–Christmas was too fraught with emotion, we needed to be rational about marital pros and cons…So Christmas Day I presented him with a hand stitched stocking–stitched with symbols of our relationship and words of my enduring love. In the toe of that stocking was a gold wedding ring. He looked uncomfortable, but he gamely handed over my stocking, and in it was…nothing remotely romantic!! The idiot took me at my word! I was mortified, but I married the boy anyway–that was 26 years ago.