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Jan and Carma Have Good Karma!

July 19, 2016 by WendyB

This weekend, I received an intriguing email from a gentleman named Jan Boogaard:

“I have found a ring that has the Wendy Brandes stamp on it and appears to be a custom piece.  I have attached a picture. I’m hoping you keep some kind of record of whose this could be so I can return it to its owner.”

I was in suspense for the couple of seconds it took me to scroll to the photo, thinking, “I hope I remember this one!”  Turned out I didn’t have to rack my brain at all because this ring …

foundring

The picture of the found ring.

… is the ring that I created for my own mother’s birthday in 2014.

Ruby-Diamond-Ring_Z__99202_std

Click to read about this ring. You can order one too!

I was like …

via GIPHY

… because BarbaraB hadn’t told me she had lost the ring, making me surmise that she didn’t even know it was gone yet. I was right. (I forwarded BarbaraB the original email and picture with the remark, “Ever feel you were missing something?!”) I connected her to Jan (pronounced “Yon”), who drove 15 miles through a Florida downpour to meet BarbaraB at the grocery store where the ring had slipped off her finger.

It was Jan who found the ring at Fresh Market, but it was his wife, Carma, who found me. As she told me in a later email:

“When he brought [the ring] home, I looked for a stamp. It’s such a unique and intricate piece, I was hoping there would be some indicator as to where it came from. It took about 45 seconds after googling the Wendy Brandes stamp to find pictures of “Barbara’s customizable ring” and what you wrote about it. I immediately felt like we hadn’t found a replica, but your mom’s ring. We looked for contact information and you know the rest!”

I wanted to find out a little more about Jan and Carma, mostly to see if they matched the image I had in my mind’s eye based entirely on their names and proximity to my parents’ community: a Dutch couple, married 50 years, who retired to Florida to be near their American-born grandkids.

I was sooooo wrong.

carmajan

Good-deed doers Jan and Carma.

This gorgeous couple — from Illinois originally, not the Netherlands — have been married 11 years, not 50. They have two children (not grandchildren) with fabulous names: Their son, Dax, is 10, and their daughter, Torunn, is 5. The Boogaards have been in Florida for about eight years, where they are not retired. Jan works in retail management and Carma is an account manager for a school software company. The moral of this story is to (a) never judge a book by its cover, and (b) never assume people are a Dutch version of your parents just because they shop at the same grocery store in Florida.

Jan and Carma earned a lot of good karma for rescuing BarbaraB’s ring. In addition, they’ve earned a piece of Wendy Brandes jewelry, courtesy of my grateful mother. We’re about to pick that out now.

If any of you readers someday find a piece of jewelry with my name inscribed in it, holla at me at info at wendybrandes dot com, so I can help get it back to its owner … which hopefully won’t be Mom again!

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Filed Under: Jewelry, rings

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nola Rice says

    July 19, 2016 at 5:26 am

    What a lovely story.

    • WendyB says

      July 19, 2016 at 4:51 pm

      I love a happy ending!

  2. Barbara Brandes says

    July 19, 2016 at 7:56 am

    ??

    • WendyB says

      July 19, 2016 at 4:50 pm

      <3

  3. Kathy says

    July 19, 2016 at 8:12 am

    What a funny story!!

    • WendyB says

      July 19, 2016 at 4:50 pm

      Seriously, my face when I saw the photo of the ring was just like that gif.

  4. Louise says

    July 19, 2016 at 10:45 am

    What a fantastic story! Thanks for giving me some GOOD news to read this morning. I’m so glad your mom is rewarding them with a genuine Wendy Brandes piece, too.

    • WendyB says

      July 19, 2016 at 4:50 pm

      There are good people out there!

  5. GeorgeB says

    July 19, 2016 at 4:21 pm

    It was a dark and stormy night and then along came Jan & Torunn to brighten the day. We can’t say thanks often enough for their thoughtfulness and Carma’s Googling skills

    • WendyB says

      July 19, 2016 at 4:50 pm

      We’re so lucky!

  6. Tuesday says

    July 19, 2016 at 9:18 pm

    This has restored my faith in humanity!!! (for now)

    • WendyB says

      July 19, 2016 at 11:58 pm

      Same!

  7. Sheila (of Ephemera) says

    July 19, 2016 at 9:34 pm

    Doesn’t it make you feel good to know there are still good-hearted, honest people out there?? That is the nicest thing – all the good karma to that lovely couple! So glad your mom got her custom ring back, and I love that she’s giving them a personal gift that connects all of you as a thank you. This make my heart happy. Thank you for sharing this, Wendy! PS – I wear your rings nearly every day – I think my cost-per-wear is down to about 50 cents per ring, easy! Totally worth every penny.

    • WendyB says

      July 19, 2016 at 11:58 pm

      Ooh, your rings are getting great use! I’m glad you’re still enjoying them.

  8. Amie says

    July 20, 2016 at 5:49 am

    What a great story! My mind was picturing the exact same retired Netherland couple in Florida as you described. I was a little confused when your story turned to the real Jan and Carma. What a sweet story.

    • WendyB says

      July 20, 2016 at 1:39 pm

      I’m glad I’m not the only one who had that vision! 🙂

  9. Catherine says

    July 21, 2016 at 1:44 am

    Fantastic!!! What an amazing story! Such a great deed and good thing to hear!! Yay!!

    • WendyB says

      July 21, 2016 at 7:12 pm

      🙂

  10. HelOnWheels says

    July 21, 2016 at 2:12 pm

    Yay for happy endings to great stories. Faith in humanity restored.

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MEET WENDY BRANDES

Award-winning designer of fine jewelry inspired by women's history and pop culture. A former journalist who writes about jewelry, fashion, medieval history, news, feminism, dogs, cats and whatever else is on her mind. Blogging since 2007.
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