But I don't wear gold jewellery...

This morning I lost the butterfly back off my earring stud. As I dried my hair after my shower, I felt it come off, and heard it go, "plink" as it fell to the bathroom floor. But after much searching, I couldn't find it, and have resigned myself to the likelihood that it fell down the drain in the middle of the bathroom floor.

This particular stud is not really anything special, it's the single surgical steel stud that was used to pierce my right ear for the third time, and is one that I always leave in, even when I don't wear any other earrings.

When I was in my early twenties, I went through a 'rebellious phase' and got my ears pierced a second time.  
(cue for you to laugh uproariously at the concept of me being a 'rebel without a cause')

Back then, my mother had a real bee in her bonnet about ear piercing. According to her, it was ok to have your ears pierced once... as long as you were a girl. I'm not quite sure what figured worse in her books: a girl with multiple piercings (and in those days remember, we were only talking about earlobes; the more 'creative' piercing sites hadn't been conceived at that stage), or a guy with either of his ears pierced (and God help him if he had both ears pierced!).

I had been in Canberra for a couple of weeks, at a Fusion gathering, and got my ears pierced for the second time whilst there. Mum's first comment when she saw me after my return to Sydney was, "You've had your ears pierced again!" For some years, I regularly wore two earrings in each ear (back then it was kind of trendy to wear a stud in the top hole and a round sleeper or some kind of drop earring in the lower one). But after a while, I tired of it, and became a bit absent-minded about wearing earrings, and so the upper holes kind of closed up, although the lower (original) holes have always remained patent.

At some stage I decided to be even more radical, and get one further piercing in my right ear, and have always worn just a plain stud in it, never removing it. As I am still pretty absent-minded about wearing other earrings, I usually have just the single stud in, and people often tell me I've lost an earring (and I have to explain that this isn't the case, and there was only ever one earring to start with).

Anyway, it was this stud whose backing butterfly I lost this morning. Now, it wouldn't have been such a big deal to find a replacement backing for it, except for the fact that it's one of those studs with extra-thick posts used for piercing, and so the holes in the butterflies from normal studs wouldn't be big enough to accommodate the thickness of the stud (so it seems that size really does matter... in many things).

Mum plonked a little jewellery box containing many stud earrings in front of me, and told me to take my pick to replace my stud. I explained that I needed a stud that I could leave in all the time: in the shower, in bed, when I go swimming etc etc, and that had a butterfly on the back that wouldn't fall off. She said that she had a single gold stud that would fit the bill... but I explained that I don't wear gold jewellery, so that wouldn't work.

I sifted through the jewelbox, looking at the various studs; most of which were dressy, or had stones in them, and just wouldn't be robust enough for my purposes... and then I saw the gold stud. It really did fit the bill for the robustness factors that I needed, but it was gold, and I don't wear gold jewellery... or at least not much of it.

Mum's gold stud in my right ear

When my father died, nearly five years ago now, Mum gave me Dad's signet ring; an ornate rose gold shield, with a tiny ruby set in it, and Dad's initials engraved on it. Mum had given it to Dad for his 21st birthday, in April 1956, the year before they were married. I've worn Dad's ring ever since. Recently Mum told me of a conversation she had a while ago with one of my cousins. Mum had commented that unlike her, I was not at all sentimental. My cousin replied, "But she wears her father's ring, doesn't she? I'd call that sentimental." And I guess in a way, it is a sentimental choice to wear it, as it's kind of like a part of Dad that I can keep close and visible; something physically tangible to remember him by. And it's also the only piece of gold jewellery that I've worn in a very long time.

Dad's ring (the close up makes my finger look swollen :-/ )

So when I was considering whether or not to wear this gold stud of Mum's, it occurred to me that this could complement the gold ring of Dad's, so that I am carrying with me a piece of Dad and of Mum, and the specialness of these items is evident (at least to me) due to their incongruity: because I don't wear gold jewellery.. well, not usually, anyway

(and I'm not at all sentimental, ok? ;-P)