wedding ring
In 1995, during the Christmas season, Lena Paahlsson was baking Christmas cookies with her daughters at their farm in northern Sweden. As was her habit while baking, Lena took off her wedding ring, and placed it on the counter. While they were cleaning up after baking, Lena could not find her ring. It was a devastating end to the year. Lena and her family hunted for the ring everywhere, even pulling up floorboards…hoping against hope, but to no avail. The ring had vanished…lost forever, or so they thought.
Then, one day in October 2011, while she was pulling the last of the carrots from her garden, Lena was stunned to see her wedding ring wrapped neatly around the top of the carrot. Lena had given up hope of ever finding the ring she cherished. The family speculates that the ring must have fallen into the sink, and been mixed with the potato peels that were later composted or fed to the sheep, because the soil in the garden is made from composted vegetables and sheep dung. They have no idea why it took 16 years for the ring to work its way to the surface again, but they are sure that if the ring had not had a tiny carrot seed land in its middle, it would have still be 
hiding there in the rich dirt of the garden. In the end, it was a Carat Carrot that returned her ring to her.
Unfortunately, after all these years, the ring no longer fits Lena. It will need to be sized before she can wear it again. They fact certainly didn’t dim the joy and happiness the family felt at the return of the precious ring. Lena says, “I had given up hope. Now that I have found the ring again I want to be able to use it.” I’m sure that the Carat Carrot made the meal it was used in just that much better. Imagine…the carrot had a very special job to do, before it went on to do what it was destined to do in the first place.
When my grandparents were married, on December 24, 1927, our country was in a recession, and money was scarce. My grandfather had a matching set of Sixguns that he loved, but he loved Grandma more, so he sold those guns to get enough money to pay for the wedding costs and get Grandma a ring. He was never able to get them back, but always felt that he got the better end of the deal.
Since times were tough, Grandpa decided to forego a wedding ring for himself so that Grandma could have one. He wanted a wife and family more than a ring. His instincts were good too since they were married 52 years before Grandpa went home to be with the Lord. Their marriage was blessed with 9 children, and countless grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren.
One day, years later, when their second child, my Aunt Virginia, was 8 to 10 years old, all the children were playing outside. Aunt Virginia went exploring at the side of the house, between Grandma and Grandpa’s house and Great Grandma’s house, where there was a flower garden. She looked down, and there in the garden was a man’s wedding ring. It must have been dug up during garden work. Excitedly, she picked it up and ran into the house to show it to her parents.
Grandpa looked at it and told her it was a beautiful ring. He put it on his hand, and looked at it. Then he took it off and gave it back to Aunt Virginia. She said, “Daddy, you should keep it.” He said he couldn’t, but she insisted, and that is how my grandfather got his wedding band from his daughter. Aunt Virginia was so pleased to be able to give her dad the wedding ring he had never had and would not be able to buy for himself, as there were too many other things that his paycheck was needed for. And Grandpa was so pleased that she wanted him to have such a beautiful ring. He wore the ring proudly for the rest of his life. And everyone in his family was very please that he had been blessed with the ring.
