Full Circle (literally & metaphorically)!

In the summer of 1999, my lovely wife and I hastily (more on this in my future blogs) planned a small / mid size wedding (by Indian standards, it was a micro size one). We had no money for the wedding so we took out a loan of CDN $10,000 from our neighbourhood Royal Bank. This, of course, had to pay for all of our wedding expenses, including Karm’s engagement and wedding rings and my wedding band, which I have yet to wear.

We went ring shopping and walked into an Armenian owned jewellery store in North Vancouver called Vitale. We met the owner and his wife, a lovely couple. Before long, we placed our order (customized rings) and walked out happier than ever. The shop owners worked extra hard to have everything prepared for our July wedding date and we were ever so grateful for it. Karm’s wedding ring stills shines, albeit a little less than the first day because it needs some good polishing.

Fast forward to October 28, 2011, Isabella’s Halloween school dance party. I was the “gate keeper”, literally, and Karm was inside with Isabella when I saw her running out frantically to tell me that the centre-piece diamond (I think that’s what they call it) had fallen off the ring. While trying to calm Karm down, I said, “oh well, what are you going to do; it’s just a diamond”. Meanwhile, I’m trying to do quick calculations in my head as to what the replacement is going to cost us.

But before you know it, some people at the dance party found out about the mishap and promised to help after the event was over; this included the school principal, who got on his hands and knees to help with the search amongst the garbage. Well, we had no luck and I kindly thanked everyone for their help. As I was walking back home, I called Karm to inform her that we had no luck finding the diamond, at which point Karm screamed into the phone telling me that she had found the missing diamond in her jacket pocket. I guess, by luck, it had fallen off the ring while Karm had reached into her pocket or something. Funny thing though, I had a feeling that that may have been the case (I know what you’re thinking: sure you did Armin; but I really did). Anyway, I ran back to school and told the “search party” and hugs and high-fives were passed around.

Well, here’s where the story gets even more interesting. Since that incident, Karm has been trying to locate the owners of Vitale so she could get the ring fixed. We knew that the North Vancouver store was relocated somewhere Downtown but we didn’t know where exactly as we couldn’t find it in telephone directory or online.

Well, last Sunday, we walked into the Sears store in Downtown Vancouver and Karm ran into the wife of the Armenian family, who was now working in the shoe department of Sears. She could not believe the fact that not only we remembered her and her husband, but we have been trying so hard to find their new store. She informed us that the jewellery store was no longer around and tearfully told us that her husband passed away about a year ago from cancer. She helped us with our shoe purchases and after a long and warm conversation, we gave her a hug and bid her farewell with a promise to return in the near future.

I guess, in a freaky way, Karm got her answer and can now look for a new jeweller.

Thanks for reading,

Armin

PS. As a side note, as we were walking out of the store, I noticed that the boots that I had purchased had names (like Ikea furniture); one was called Surrey, like the city I live in, and the other was called Sutton, like Sutton Place Hotel, where my dad works.

Freaky stuff, eh?