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Engagement PearlsA letter about engagement pearls from Mary Policastro to her daugther...
 Engagement Pearls Today I restrung the pearls your grandfather gave your grandmother on their wedding day in 1947.
I was sobered by removing the old silk string. It had absorbed the joy and tears of an entire generation of our family. Each of your unique personalities must blend to form a new generation’s legacy. I was sobered to read that the silk strands of a string of pearls are actually strengthened when the holes drilled in the pearls have a bit of a rough edge. Those edges mesh the individual strands together to form one strand that is thinner and stronger than the original two had been. How profound! As the oldest, you have the most awareness of the rough edges that our family has experienced. Financial, emotional, physical and spiritual difficulties have provided many rough edges. These edges have indeed woven your father and me together as one. There are exactly 103 pearls in your necklace. As I put them on the cording, I prayed for each year, trial, joy, and experience that each pearl would represent. Your grandmother had a belief about pearls; she said that each one represented a tear. I realize after all these years that tears are good. The tears of sentiment are many at reunions, engagements, weddings, births, baptisms, graduations, crises, and alas-funerals. The sentiments may flow as joy or grief. Sometimes the joy and grief are indistinguishable, even in our own hearts. May you shed at least 103 tears of joy. May you both allow Christ to cradle you in comfort for every grieving tear that falls. Here Mary shares her story of restringing these pearls. More "Pearls & People" stories like "Engagement Pearls".
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