Angie:
Sorry you had the experience but it sounds painfully familiar. Only it was
me, not my child that lost something valuable down the drain.
A few years back, my wife had her diamond earrings (a gift from me) soaking in cleaning solution in a small bowl on the bathroom sink. I was still half-awake that morning and, thinking she had simply forgotten to take the bowl away, I casually tossed out the liquid, never noticing the tiny diamond earrings that were also in there. A few hours later she asked me - in a tone that I knew meant 'this can't be good' - if I had seen her earrings that she had soaking in that small white bowl that was sitting on the bathroom sink (I had already washed the bowl and put it away). Oh-oh. I responded with all the incredulity I could muster:
"Earrings? In a white bowl? What earrings? She replied, with some anxiety in her voice:
"My diamond earrings. I was soaking them in a cleaning solution. Did you put them somewhere? Knowing the jig was up, I admitted that I had thrown the solution out and never noticed the earrings. In my defense I bleated: "
Well, they were small!" My sainted wife, who is not materialistic or prone to obsessing about her appearance (although she looks fine to me), was clearly annoyed but resigned. After all, it
was a mistake. I didn't throw them away on purpose. Heck, I
bought them for her! The story had a happy ending. We never found the earrings but we made a claim on our homeowners insurance and received almost the full value of the earrings (quite a few hundred dollars). They were promptly replaced. Needless to say, from that point on, I never, ever touched any small bowls sitting on sinks - or anywhere else. Fortunately, my wife is the forgiving type and this is only occasionally brought up as a humorous story. Well, that's what she
says.
Jim
