‘One-in-a-million’ discovery as Hub woman finds pearl
A Boston woman who organized a cocktail hour for a symposium her company was hosting treated herself to an oyster that turned out to hold a “one-in-a-million” surprise.
Audine Ike, an operations manager at education consulting firm Tyton Partners, hired Island Creek Oysters for the event her company was hosting Wednesday at RSM, an audit, tax and consulting business in City Square.
“It had been a long day, and I finally decided to let myself relax,” said Ike, 38. “So I picked the biggest oyster, about three-quarters of the size of my hand. But when I bit into it, it hurt my teeth. I thought I had bitten into a piece of shell.”
When she spat it out into her hand, she was stunned to find “this beautiful, tiny pearl, perfectly round,” she said. “I was so excited, I went around the room, showing people.”
As it turns out, Ike had good reason to be surprised.
Of the roughly 3 million oysters Island Creek has sold this season, hers is only the third to contain a pearl, said Emily Weedon, the company’s events coordinator.
“Pearls are one in a million, a diamond in the rough,” Weedon said. “So it’s special for her to find one.”
Now Ike keeps the pearl on her dresser at home while she looks for a jeweler to set it in a necklace so that she can wear it as a reminder of her good fortune.
“Boston has been so welcoming to me,” said Ike, who moved here from London last year. “I’ve really taken to it, especially the ocean. I feel like this is Boston paying me back for loving it so much.”