LETTER OF THE WEEK

RING THE CHANGES Jo Hoare’s article, For sale: one engagement ring, hardly

worn (11 September), struck a chord with me, as it’s something many women face but we rarely talk about. When I ended an engagement five years ago, I kept the ring (mostly because I had paid for half of it!), but couldn’t stand the sight of it and wanted to get rid. My mother held on to it, knowing I would have probably sold it for a knockdown price and, after a year or so, had it re-set for me. The diamond is now a small pendant necklace, while the ring setting has a different gemstone in it, with a personal meaning to me. They’re new pieces of jewellery that I wear often, and it’s a way for me to accept my past while acknowledging that I have grown and changed as a person. Name withheld