Pearly shell

Diamonds are indeed forever, as a commercial slogan for the precious stone says. In fact, it can outlast relationships, like that of New Yorker Lauren Boc.

Boc’s whirlwind romance and marriage lasted four months. The Brooklyn jewelry designer’s ex-husband asked for a divorce in October.

To symbolize her survival from the breakup, she customized a “divorce ring” to supersede her engagement and wedding rings. The 35-year-old Fort Greene resident showed the New York Post the “18-carat yellow gold loop boasting a 4-carat Ascher-cut, lab-grown diamond.”

“My divorce ring is a beautiful reminder of my resilience. It was really healing to reinvent my ring as I’m reinventing myself,” she was quoted by the NYP.

Rhode Island couple Sandy Sikorski, 70, and Ken Steinkamp, 75, are tying the knot on 14 April. The pair met online in 2018.

Sikorski’s engagement ring, however, is not a traditional diamond. Instead, it is a pearl.

She will also wear pearl earrings for the pearl-themed nuptials at the Avondale Chapel, a centuries-old Baptist church in Westerly. The wedding cake and bridesmaids’ shoes will also have pearl linings.

The pearl motif was inspired by the one on Sikorski’s engagement ring. On 27 December 2021, she found it in a clam she was eating during a seafood dinner date with her fiance at the now-shuttered Bridge Restaurant in Westerly.

After biting into the clam, she spit out a hard, round object that turned out to be a sizeable pearl.

WJG @tribunephl_wjg WITH AFP