Antique engagement rings are often the perfect way to express sentiment with your special someone. There are even times when pieces foster so much of a backstory that long lost loves can be reunited with a simple gesture.
According to Philly.com, New Jersey resident, Private Dave Kershaw from General Patton's Third Army, helped liberate starving prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp just before the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. A prisoner and jewelry designer was so grateful that he made Kershaw two pre-engagement rings with custom engravings for his girlfriend, Jeanne Walker, back home. Kershaw put these items away in a lockbox for several years because of the uncertainties of the war, then the couple split up and went their separate ways shortly thereafter.
In 2011, Kershaw's wife of 61 years developed Alzheimer's, and when he decided to call a professional to help her, he realized that Jeanne, the love of his life, was a nurse that specialized in treating the disease. It wasn't long before Kershaw and Walker rekindled their relationship, prompting him to finally endow her with the vintage jewelry pieces that were locked away for decades.
