The Ring That Started It All

The ring belonged to my great-grandmother, Mary Jane, though she went by MJ, and sometimes Lindy, depending on the day and who was telling the story. The family had different theories about the origin of the ring.

Some thought it came from her mother, Florence Lindenberger, also known as Flossie. Others thought it was her father's, H.R. Lindenberger, better known in the family as Mickey. A sharply dressed man who always had a rose in his lapel from Nana Lin's garden, a cigar in hand, and the Phillies game playing in the background.

But, the details had become fuzzy over time, as family stories often do.

We were spending the day going through old memories, photos, books, albums, trying to piece together the lives behind the names and faces. That's when my great aunt Marianne paused and suggested, "What if we could actually find a picture of the ring?"

So we looked, digging through boxes and brittle pages until we found it! There, in a black and white photograph, was Grandpa Lin (Mickey) with his signature rose in his lapel, hand resting on the arm of his chair, and the ring gleaming on his finger.

Mary Jane and the Ring

It was a diamond ring, the kind most people save for special occasions. But Mary Jane wore it every day, believing that beautiful things should be part of life's ordinary moments, the ones that, when you look back, turn out to have been the most important ones.

She wore it constantly, twirling it between her fingers, rubbing it when she was thinking. No one remembers exactly when she started wearing it. It was just there, and she never took it off.

My mom remembers her on the porch, reading books to them, coffee in one hand, cigarette in the other, turning the ring with her finger. "It was like it had grown there," she said.

That constant presence matched Mary Jane herself. She made a habit of showing up for others.

My grandma Mimi would be at elementary school and hear a knock at the classroom door. There would be Mary Jane with an umbrella and rain boots. "Could you please give these to Suzie?" she'd ask the teacher, having driven all the way there because she was worried it might rain. My grandma still laughs and rolls her eyes telling this story.

At the movie theater, she'd appear thirty minutes into the film, with a sweater for Mimi or her friends because she thought they might be cold.

During sleepovers on the screened porch, the girls would hear footsteps in the middle of the night. Mary Jane would appear, whispering, "Girls, keep it down." They asked her why her eyes were closed, she said, "So she wouldn't wake up." They'd all laugh.

Like Mary Jane herself, there was her ring, always present. Through porch nights, church pews, grilled cheese sandwiches and Sunday sticky buns divided five ways.

MJ used to say, "Life happens when you least expect it." That ring saw plenty of it.

Designing the Collection

That ring was just the beginning. We wondered what other family treasures were out there with stories worth telling, so we started building a collection around pieces that meant something special.

We've made a version of my grandmother Mimi's vintage ring, a new take on MJ's husband Robert's ring, along with matching pendants and earrings shaped by the same lines and details.

Each piece carries the same philosophy that made Mary Jane's ring so special. Fine jewelry that's beautiful enough to be worn and lived in, with meaning and stories behind them, designed to be part of daily life and passed on later.

Now We Want Your Stories!

We went looking for one ring's story and ended up creating a whole collection. Now we want to hear yours!

This summer we're launching a new chapter, the Heirloom Project. We'll be asking people to share their own family rings and the stories behind them. Some of those pieces will be selected and made into part of the collection, created with the same care and purpose that started it all.

Because pieces like these aren't meant to stay in drawers or be forgotten in jewelry boxes. They're meant to be lived in, remembered, and passed on full of stories worth telling, just like Mary Jane's timeless ring.

It went from Grandpa Mickey's hand to hers, then to my grandma Mimi, then to my mom, and eventually to me. Four generations of memories, and now it inspires a whole collection.

Every piece of jewelry has a story. We'd love to help tell yours. The Vintage Collection launches July 7th. Be the first to shop it here.