What Do I Do with the Ring?

Eight months after my wife Lisa died of cancer, I sat in our bedroom staring at my gold wedding band, the symbol of our love and marriage that I still wore. I didn’t want to let go. I didn’t want my marriage to end after only 8 years, and the thought of removing my ring plagued me with guilt.

Yet, I knew that I had to remove my ring. I had to admit that at age 40, I was a widower with two young sons to raise.

My ring is a symbol of the oath I took on my wedding day. It is a symbol of the love I feel for my wife. Even more than a symbol, it is part of my identity. It identified me as a married man, one who is committed to his wife and family and proud of that fact. It identified me as someone who is loved and loving in return.

Taking Off the Ring

If I take the ring off, does that mean I am not loved? Does it mean I don’t love Lisa anymore? Does it mean I am a failure? And does it mean I’m single when I still feel like I am married? Does it mean I’m giving up on the marriage when it was death that stopped the marriage? Without the ring, would people see me as a single, never married, or divorced? I want people to know that I had a happy family life and that I kept my wedding vows until death parted us.

I slid the ring off my finger and felt the cold air spread over the exposed skin, so I put it back on. The next day, I took it off for an hour before returning it to its place on my ring finger.

It was a struggle between wanting to move on and wanting to hang on, between having someone to love and no one to love. Two nights later, just before I went to sleep, I took the ring off and placed it on the night stand. I slept the night away but in the morning I put the ring back on. I survived the night without it but I was asleep. On the weekend, I again took the ring off, taped it to a piece a paper and left it on the nightstand. I went the whole weekend without the ring.

Safety Deposit Box

I had to adjust my thinking to my new identity as a widower and adjust to having people look at me without the ring and assume I’m single or divorced. They will not think I am a widower because I am too young. After the weekend without the ring, I accepted that I can leave it off and move on.

I went to the bank and sat in the small private cubicle and opened our safe deposit box. In the box were real estate deeds, cemetery deeds, and a safety pin holding Lisa’s engagement ring and wedding ring. I opened the safety pin and looked at her engagement ring; the memories flood back to nine years before.

The day after Thanksgiving was our special day because it was our first day of snow skiing and that was the day I planned on proposing. We sat on the chairlift for the first ride up the mountain. The temperature in Vermont was near freezing as I reached into my puffy down jacket and pulled out the small, black velvet box and handed it to Lisa.

She took the box, put her gloves and ski poles on her lap and opened the box. Her jaw dropped, and she looked at me with a puzzled look.

The look on her face was priceless, and thinking back and feeling the love and happiness that I felt on that day still makes me smile.

“Will you marry me?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

It was my worst day of skiing but the happiest day of my life.

Remembering the Wedding

At the bank, I picked up the wedding ring, a gold band inset with diamonds. Engraved inside is our wedding date and the initials “tmwlr,” which means “to my wife, love Rich.”

We had an evening wedding at our church and in front of one hundred people we vowed to be husband and wife till death do us part. Five years and two kids into our marriage, Lisa was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. I didn’t know what to do except support Lisa in her quest for a miracle. The miracle was that she lived three and a half years longer than the doctor’s diagnosis before her body gave out and she passed away.

I put her rings back on the safety pin.

As I peered into the interior of my ring, I read the date and the initials ‘tmhll’, which means ‘to my husband love Lisa’.  I smiled. She loved me and I loved her. I thank God for giving her and the boys to me.

I took my ring and slipped it over the open pin and the ring slid down and rested against Lisa’s ring. Then I closed the pin and the box and sat absorbing another step in my healing. I knew that I was healing, and I will still love her until I die. Our rings, the symbols of our love, are together as I know that Lisa and I will be together again.

I leave the bank and start the rest of my life.

Visit Richard’s website: Home – Richard Ballo

Read more from Richard on Open to Hope: Easter Adoption Gives Pain, Then Peace – Open to Hope

 

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Richard Ballo

Richard Ballo is a national speaker and author in grief and healing and has been a professional writer since 1980 and has a B.S. degree in Journalism. Richard’s general interest articles have appeared in the Montachusett Review, Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise, Neapolitan Families, Byline Magazine, Suffolk Evening Voice, Retrop Times, The Lynn Daily Item, The Waltham News Tribune, Florida Kiwanian, Resource Recycling magazine, and BMW ON Magazine. He is the author of the award winning book “Life without Lisa: a widowed father’s compelling journey through the rough seas of grief.” This book was awarded theFlorida Publishers Association's President’s Pick award. He has been a guest speaker to numerous groups about healing from grief including Hospice of Hilo, HI, Hospice of the Valley, San Juan, CA, Wings of Hope Hospice, Allegan, MI, and Charlotte Hospice, Charlotte, NC, and many churches and hospitals. He has been a guest on over 20 radio stations in the U.S including KKUP Cupertino, California, WXZO Kalamazoo, Michigan, WFLO Farmville, Virginia, WQQQ Lakeville, Connecticut, WOCA News Talk 1370 AM Ocala, Florida, KPQ 560 AM Greater Seattle, WNTN Boston, MA, and KLPW-AM St. Louis. He has also appeared on TV, including Fox News, and had book signings at bookstores across the country including Barnes and Nobles and Borders. Richard has experienced many sides of grief including the death of his wife early in their marriage, raising two sons as a single father, giving up a daughter he was going to adopt, the loss of his father and other loses. He is on the Board of Directors, and the Physicians’ Advisory Board, of Avow Hospice in Naples, Florida, and Avow bestowed on him recognition for all his work at Avow and in the community. He has been a member of the Kiwanis Club of Northside Naples since 1995 where he has served as the newsletter editor, a distinguished Secretary, and Past President. Richard continues to speak on grief and healing around the country at hospices, churches, and libraries. For bulk-rate discounts on his book or to bring Richard to your organization as a guest speaker to help you heighten community awareness of your organization, call 1-877-513-0099 or email Books@QoLpublishing.com.

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