Engagement Date: 1982
Wedding Date: 4/23/1983

Romance can happen when it’s least expected. I met my future husband on a trip to the local hospital to visit the husband of one of my friends. Jim was his roommate. Jim, in the hospital for tests, was the perfect host. During my visit, he even supplied refreshments – some orange juice from the nurses’ refrigerator down the hall.

After being discharged with a clean bill of health, Jim came to visit me. Our courtship started on a formal note; we even exchanged business cards on our first date. Soon, however, I realized that I was falling in love with Jim, a kind, witty, gentle man. That came as a surprise. Widowed six years earlier, I’d become comfortable living alone and thought that I’d probably never re-marry. Jim, divorced three years before, had reached the same conclusion. So we were both surprised at ourselves (as well as scared) when we declared our love and decided to marry. But marry we did – and, after twenty-six years, we still feel like honeymooners!

Benari Jewelers and Barry Ginsburg, our favorite Benari salesperson, have become an integral part of Jim’s and my celebration of our marriage. I dreamt of a gorgeous Asscher-cut diamond ring to celebrate the milestone of our twentieth wedding anniversary. Eager to help, Barry brought in diamond after diamond – ah, the joy of looking at a sparkling unmounted diamond, its beauty magnified more than sixty times by Benari’s precision zoom microscope! On his fourth try, Barry turned my dream into a reality as Jim and I both identified the same perfect Asscher-cut diamond! Then Minh, Benari’s expert technician, mounted my diamond into a beautiful platinum setting. When I saw the complete ring, I could not stop saying, “WOW!!”

As I write this, my Asscher-cut “WOW!!” ring is sparkling up at me while my fingers happily tap out Jim’s and my love story. Meanwhile, the love – and the anniversaries – continue to grow. For our twenty-fifth anniversary, Barry and Benari’s again came through, this time with a magnificent platinum-set baguette-and-brilliant-cut diamond anniversary band that I christened the “bling ring.” I can’t WAIT to see what magnificent creation my husband and the Benari team have in store for our thirtieth wedding anniversary!