Mother-in-Law Rocks

Email from Mary - January 23, 2022

After Jim and Adele separated, there were items in the house on Hood's Canal that he wanted boxed up.  Kay volunteered the two of us.  We sorted and boxed some items, walked on the beach and found some beach wood and " Mother-in-Law" rocks*. For whatever reason, we lifted the small rowboat that he had on sawhorses or a trailer.  I promptly dropped my end onto the ring finger of my left hand.  I was wearing a favorite ring, a red tiger eye stone, a fairly rare stone.  The weight of the boat cracked the stone and squeezed my finger that immediately turned blue and then purple. I was sure I would lose my finger if we didn't go to an emergency room. Kay went to the car got her Leatherman tool and slipped it between my finger and the ring and cut it off. I don't know how she found the room to get the blade in place, but it worked. My finger pinked up and I mourned the loss of the ring. I think I still have it upstairs.

Kay saved my finger for several rings that I like to wear.

* "Mother-in-Law rocks" are rocks that have multiple indentations from clam shells embedded in mud that solidified into stone.  The shells deteriorate and leave irregular surfaces.  Kay said indigenous people have a legend that a cranky or bossy mother-in-law could have the rocks tied around their neck and be thrown into the sea. How politically incorrect is that?    

I still have one of those rocks on the ledge in the kitchen.  I carried it to apartments in Seattle, to Montana and back.  The large piece of driftwood I found that day has been in the garden for years and now has sedums growing on it.  I remember Jim every time I look at them.