Photo by: PNL

The Price of Gold

Photo by: PNL

There was a time when I wore gold jewelry. Then, it became too traditional for me, so I wore it less. Finally, occasions at which I might have worn gold jewelry, even if it were not too traditional, vaporized from my life. The timing of these two trends was fortuitous. It would be bad to have a stash of fancy necklaces and bracelets but have nowhere to go to wear them. I forgot about my jewelry. You can wear beads and glass and pearls anywhere, even if you have nowhere to go. I wear beads when I have nowhere to go.

Today, I took my collection of gold jewelry to a store and sold it. It included my old wedding band and other gifts from my then-husband. When we lived in Chicago, our neighbor, Joe, was a jeweler. Most of what I found in my closet last night came from Joe’s business. I’m thinking that he brought it home in his pocket and my then-husband went next door to buy it. It was all very lovely, if you like gold jewelry. Once, Joe pulled out sapphires and rubies from his pants pocket, like jelly beans.

Anyway, while I was waiting for the appraiser to evaluate what I had brought to the store this morning, I listened to a conversation that a woman was having with one of the clerks at the other end of the counter. She had a necklace with a difficult clasp. She could not put it on without looking, and wanted to know how it could be changed.

“It is just me at home,” she said.

The clerk suggested something that might be easier. She called over the jeweler who would make it for her. He told the woman, Barbara, that he would have to readjust the ends of the necklace and fabricate an entirely new clasp. It would cost $95.

Barbara thought for a few minutes. She was in her sixties, I think, and had a grey hairdo and pink lips.

“Not now,” she said, threading the necklace back into its sack. “It’s not that I have anywhere to wear it.”

For now, I have my children at home. If I can’t close a necklace clasp, I can ask one of them to do it for me. If I need a scratch in the middle of my back, they certainly can reach. If there is a bug in my hair, they will tell me. People who live completely alone can walk around with gnats in their hair and not know it. What else couldn’t Barbara do, I wondered, thinking, really, about what I should start practicing. I have figured out the buttons up the spine, the zippers, the attic. I need to work on the sunscreen and the twice yearly bed flipping. It is a challenge to avoid crashing into the ceiling fan. Once, before I was married, I removed a wall-to-wall carpet from underneath a twin bed, desk and chest of drawers, myself, and hauled it down a three-story walk-up to the curb. I can flip a bed.

Before Barbara left, another woman approached the counter, in between us. She was buying cuff links, an anniversary present.

“How long have you been married?” the salesperson asked.

“Forty-two years,” she said, not smiling.

The saleswoman was impressed. The woman said nothing else, returned her credit card to her wallet, and left. Barbara gazed from the end of the glass. I took my money and deposited it in the bank.

Pamela Gwyn Kripke is a journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Redbook, Child, Parenting and Southern Accents, among other publications.

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26 Comments

I love how you used the selling of your old jewelry from your "old life" as a launching point for your observations & reflections on the two other women in the store. We have much to learn from one another, if we will keep our eyes, minds & hearts open. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us. We women have such rich & complex experiences, and we live many "lives" within our lifetime.

(and I hope Barbara keeps looking ~ she can get a new clasp for much less than $95)

This article was sad. I have a sister that is divorced and the anger and the need to dump everything from her life before is astounding to me. I find it hard to believe that there is nothing redeeming of past relationships. I really hope that some will be able to look back at their lives and not be so miserable.

I agree with Denice, I thought it would have been a good ending if she would have given the older woman the money for her clasp...

Do not sell gold jewelry unless you really need the money. Gold jewelry is an investment and some insurance for hard times. Unless your jewelry is cheap you should save it for harder times or as a inheritance for your children. Gold merchants rip you off when u try to sell. I wear mine in the bathtub or wherever I am and it reminds me of exotic places I have traveled. Best vacation souvenirs because gold tends to gain not lose value...

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I agree with Denise and both Lynn. Obviously she needed the money so she sold her old stuff from an unhappy marriage...but what a blessing to the older woman (probably on a fixed income) who didn't have the money for the clasp to be fixed on a piece she obviously cared about and the seed of generosity Pamela would have sown for her future...sometimes we are too "broke" to be able to bless another. Interesting how everyone sees it from a different viewpoint...

I have to comment regarding gigi's experience. Yes, it is a lucky time for people who are "offering" to do you a favor and buy your gold. It has been selling on the market for over $1,200 an ounce for a while now.
( an ounce of gold is smaller than you think!) I have had friends go to these "parties" and have come back thrilled that they made $500...for what was WAY over an ounce. Sellers please be aware... This is why I am "remaking" my jewelry!!

Ah, young ladies, u assumed the lady buying the cuff links was not happy (mainly in marriage) did u ever stop to think that perhaps she was buying cuff links for a dress shirt for his funeral? Plus, jewelers mark their items up 2000%. Ladies take time with your husbands, put the kids to bed early and have a special dinner, u know romantic.

The vignette was obviously not at all about the price of the metal, gold. Rather, it was a metaphor of life and how it totally changes when one has had company and is then left alone. So many things formerly done as a couple or with family cannot be done as a single. Life becomes very narrow,no matter how h*** o*e tries, and the lady still has her gold but it is no longer of value to her if it can't be "displayed". The writer has great insight...

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Interesting how we women can go through different stages of our life. It was sad to read about the woman who is all alone and the one who after being married so long doesn't realize how precarious her situation really could be. We never appreciate what we have til it's gone.

I hope that the lesson we can all take from the story is to appreciate the things we have when we have them. Who knows each of the women's situations, and we need to consider more than one side. The woman with the anniversary may love her husband very much, but had a stomach ache that day! I hope the woman who lived alone had lots of beautiful memories to keep her company. I hope she could afford to repair the clasp but just chose not to do it at the time...

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Why is it that there is such a market for gold lately? Makes me think maybe I had better save mine for a rainy day.

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