Anyhoo, Tom decided last year that he wanted to get a replica ring made for our family. There's a ton of red tape you need to go through in order to get approval from the MLB as well as the team's licensing to prevent counterfeiting. You also have to sign documents stating that this ring will never be sold or auctioned (either in galleries or online). When I explained our somewhat dysfunctional situation to the Orioles organization they could not have been more accommodating and made this whole process extremely pleasant. As for the ring company, Balfour, well that's another story. It wasn't terrible but someone over there dropped the ball and ended up costing us a lot of time. But! Here we are, a year after we started this process, and the ring finally arrived.
Tom doesn't feel worthy of wearing this ring but when he tried it on I just loved the way it looked on his hand and his face lit up as he smiled from ear to ear. He was giddy like a kid on Christmas. Though he'll never win a World Championship in this lifetime, he still manages to rock my world.
10 comments:
That is amazing. What a lovely gift. I'm glad that you finally got a memento after all of that effort. It's delightful, that it made you and Tom so happy.
How great that you finally got it though. Sorry to hear about you- know- who. My Dad married one of those, just 5 months before he died. I could write a book about all the drama/lies/stealing.
That really sucks.
I am sure your dad is happy you have HIS ring now.
I think its terrific that you were able to replace something I'm sure meant a great deal to him as a keepsake for yourself...by the way, my brother and sister did the same thing to me when mom died, shut me out of the estate, and they really did have a garage sale...some people just plain suck.
Perfect description of your dad's widow and awesome idea to replicate the ring...
Suz, Sorry you had to deal with one of these monsters as well. It's amazing to see how evil people can be. It also showed such a lack of judgement on our Dad's part.
Maggie, I'm so sorry that you had family members who were cruel to you. It makes you wonder if people enjoy treating others this way or maybe it's because they are so unhappy with themselves that they feel the need to make everyone else around them miserable. Either way, it's shitty to be on the receiving end of their behavior.
One word: sue
Sue for all your Dad's stuff. You may not think you have a right to it, but a court may think differently. Also, a court may prevent her from selling any items without offering them to you first. At the very least, you would get some profits.
Seems like it would be worth being a little litigious. It's not the money, I know. It's the memories, admiration for your father's achievements, and your love for him that is linked to the items. If not for these things you'd probably sell them at a garage sale or give them to Good Will, much like your step "mother."
I'd check ebay to make sure stuff isn't listed. If it is, bid on it.
Good luck with that one.
anon: We've been able to buy quite a bit off of ebay and wouldn't you know it, shortly after his death items from his career (Jersey's, balls, hats, etc.) starting multiplying. I don't think his wife was the one listing the stuff (she's too much of a dumb ass to figure that out) but I think she ended up either selling stuff or giving it away and those people then in turn went the ebay route. We were also able to tell by the location of where the items were listed that it most definitely came from his stash.
We talked about bringing in the higher hand of the law to ensure that we have a stake in these items but it was just too exhausting (esp after he died) to have to put energy towards this process. My grandmother has some things saved for us and we've had to pretty much ask her to keep these things under lock and key so the evil one doesn't sneak off with them. They live in the same town.
Also...whoever you are, thank you for your concern. And I love the way you put Step "mother" in quotes. We used to do that all the time when we'd have to refer to her. But we also added another word that proceeded mother...
Awww... that is a wonderful ENDING to your story, Laura! So sorry you had to go through such drama to get to it though. (A shame that his widow is such a witch....) :-(
The ring looks beautiful!
I know it makes you happy and I'm sure your Daddy is smiling down upon you. :-)
Glad you got the hardware!
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