This is a real head-scratcher. Whose ring was this?

The story starts back in the 1960s. I remember Mom coming into my bedroom and giving me a little white plastic box. She told me it was Grandpa Vayo‘s childhood ring and that he wanted me to have it.

It was a beautiful ring. Although I treasured it, I don’t think I ever wore it. Fear of losing a family heirloom was high up on the list, plus the worry that I’d somehow break it.

And so I tucked it away in my blue jewelry box (no, not one of those with a twirling ballerina; I never did get one of those beauties) for decades.

After Mom passed away, I thought to ask Dad about the ring. Took pictures and messaged them over to his iPad. He did not recognize it.

The mystery remained unsolved. So I slid the ring safely back into its case. Maybe we’d never know.

But then, as I read through Dad’s baby book last week in commemoration of his birthday, I noticed this:

Third line down: Aunt Evelyn. The first gift listed from her was a ring.

A ring?!

Could this be the ring I received nearly 60 years ago?

Maybe when the gift arrived in 1930, the cautious parents put it somewhere safe – and then forgot all about it? And somehow the story got mixed up as Mom was given the King Solomoniacal task of deciding who among the four children should receive it?

I can hear Dad right now, using one of the many character voices from The Jack Benny Program (or was it The Great Gildersleeve?) he delighted in mimicking: Mmmmm … could be!

But first, exactly who was Aunt Evelyn?

Alice Evelyn Vayo was Grandpa’s younger sister, by four years. She lived all her life in Brewer, Maine, with her parents (until great-grandpa George passed in 1951; great-grandma Alice passed in 1939).

Here’s her graduation photo from Brewer High School’s 1921 yearbook:

Evelyn worked as a bookkeeper, mostly for the Brewer Water District, until her retirement in 1969. She passed away in 1974 after a long illness; she was 71.

Upon further searching through the baby book, I came across several cute cards Evelyn sent to her nephew, including this one:

This Valentine’s Day card is signed Aunt Evy and Gloria Ann, the two-months-older cousin who is listed in the baby book as Dad’s first friend.

Although we may never find out whether the ring was Dad’s or Grandpa’s, maybe this story will – ahem! – ring a bell with someone who has just the right knowledge to help us fill in the blanks at long last.

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