Baby Shoe Necklace

L to R: William, Marshall, Aurelia, Annika, and Josiah

I treasure each of one my grandchildren, as I do my children and their spouses. To celebrate the birth and life of each of my grandchildren, I decided to start a charm necklace. Originally I had in mind to get a blue enameled shoe for each of the grandsons and a pink for each of the granddaughters. The day Josiah was born, I went to my local jewelry store and asked to buy one. They didn’t have any there but showed me a catalog from which I could order one. The jeweler told me, "You know, you could do that, but you will possibly end up having a blue and pink necklace. Whereas, this other company uses the actual birthstone of the month during which the baby was born and that could look quite nice. We don’t have any here to show you, but I would be happy to order the May shoe and let you look at it. You would be under no obligation to purchase it.” Since I had nothing to lose, I told her to proceed.

When the call came that the shoe was in, I went to the store as soon as I could. The little emerald studded shoe was one of the prettiest things I had ever seen. I didn’t need to think about it. And so started my shoe necklace.

Eighteen months later, on the day I learned Annika was born, I drove to the jewelry store to order her shoe – an amethyst. It has become my tradition to go to the store the day my new grandchild is born and order the appropriate shoe. It’s interesting that up to now, I have no two alike.

So, I now have the following:

Josiah – May, 2004 – emerald
Annika – February 2006 – amethyst
Aurelia – August 2007 – peridot
Marshall – November 2008 – topaz
William – October 2009 – pink tourmaline

P. S. There's another grandchild in the hopper!