Wedding Band and Rifle Casing

I had the honor to preserve the memories of a Husband and Father, using this special wedding band and rifle casing, in a functional creation my client could wear close to her heart. To make it even more significant, I also used her pieces of old and broken jewelry, so the entire creation could be made of her own personal treasures.

The rifle casing was from her Dad’s Military funeral. Her dad was in the Army. He served in Panama, keeping the canal open and doing search-and-rescue missions, sometimes recovery. He died on Thanksgiving Day 2006. He had lung cancer, found when he fell, injuring his shoulder. The X-ray on his shoulder revealed the cancer. He lived almost 3 years after the diagnosis.

The wedding band belonged to her husband.  An avid gardener, creating a garden large enough to feed the neighborhood (60 ft by 200 ft.). He also planted fruit trees and bushes. He loved to hunt and would get his deer each year from the same area. His friends and family named that area “Art’s Meat Market”. Art loved to restore antique cars and antique tractors, making them look brand new. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s (believed to be from all the herbicides, pesticides used when he worked on a Sod Farm and the chemicals used in the vehicle restoration). He was told, when first diagnosed, that he would have 10 good years yet before he would start showing symptoms. He died Aug 5, 2010, less than 6 years after being diagnosed. His disease progressed rapidly.