Ring has a new shine
When Taylor Puls said “yes” to Anders McCann’s marriage proposal, it gave a special family heirloom another chance to shine.
The 22-year-old former Geraldton resident now wears a 120-year-old engagement ring that originally belonged to her great, great-grandmother.
Ms Puls said her husband-to-be devised an elaborate ruse while they were holidaying in Bali recently.
“I was getting my nails done, he was meant to be dirt bike riding with his friends, and we were all going to meet up for lunch afterwards,” she said.
“When I got to lunch, his friend said Anders was feeling unwell and had gone back to the hotel.
“I went back to the hotel and found him by the pool. Then he handed me a flower and said ‘I’ve got something to show you in the room’.
“There was rose petals everywhere and he asked me to marry him — pretty cute.”
Ms Puls’ grandmother Connie Sullivan gave her the family heirloom on her 16th birthday, but it was stored in her mother’s china cabinet for years.
Mrs Sullivan said she was thrilled to learn it would be used again for its original purpose.
“I thought ‘oh, isn’t that great?’,” she said. “I was quite surprised.”
Though the ring has changed hands many times through the years, Ms Sullivan, 74, said it was only the second time it had been used to seal an engagement.
It originally belonged to Mrs Sullivan’s grandmother, Elizabeth Wright, having been given to her by husband-to-be George Scrimshaw in 1899 or 1900. The pair were married in the English village of Radcliffe on Trent in June, 1903.
Mrs Sullivan said she suspected it would have taken her grandfather, a working-class man, some time to pay off the gold ring, which is adorned with a ruby and diamonds.
“I suspect in those days they wouldn’t have worn it every day; it would only have come out on special occasions,” Mrs Sullivan said.
“Taylor and Anders got it cleaned, and they said you can hardly recognise it now. I said ‘well after 120 years of dirt, what did you expect?’.”
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