Plea over triply precious ring

SPECIAL MEMORIES: Emma O'Brien, with daughter Olive and husband David Hope. She says the missing ring was a constant reminder of her "Nanny''. "I loved that the band I wore as my own wedding ring had once touched her hand as well.''

RING REWARD: The missing ring, a rose gold band with a ruby and black diamonds, is worth about $3000. A reward of more than that sum has been offered.

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It was a triple treat – family heirloom, engagement ring and wedding band – and now the man who lost his daughter-in-law's ring is desperate to find it.

Malcolm Hope, 61, is offering a reward for the distinctive ruby and black diamond ring, which fell out of his pocket when he took it in to be repaired.

The problem is, it could be anywhere between Auckland and Wellington.

Mr Hope, a management consultant, was doing daughter-in-law Emma O'Brien a favour when he ferried the ring to Wellington on October 15.

After frantically revisiting several cafes around Lambton Quay and calling the office where he attended meetings that day, he is now hoping a reward will bring forth the ring.

He would not say how much the reward is, but it would be more than the $3000 value of the ring itself. He sent out a plea to whoever may have it: "Just contemplate returning it, no questions asked, and you'll be financially well off."

Mrs O'Brien is now living in Moscow with her diplomat husband, David Hope, and their daughter, Olive, aged three months, who was named for Mrs O'Brien's grandmother, Olive Dickson.

Mrs Dickson left the rose gold band to Mrs O'Brien, her oldest grandchild, when she died of breast cancer in 2002.

Mrs O'Brien returned home to Australia from Germany when she learned "Nanny" was dying, but it was too late. "My other grandmother met me at the door to her room with the ring – Nanny had given it to her before she passed away and asked her to make sure I got it."

The ring was a constant reminder of her grandmother. "She was like a second mother to me – I'd stay over at her house a few times a week and would go to her for advice.

"We were incredibly close and I regarded her as a friend, not just a grandmother. The ring was almost a living piece of her to me."

Mrs O'Brien had a design of ruby and black diamonds in a fan added to the ring so it could double as her engagement and wedding band.

It added to the ring's meaning, she said. "I loved that the band I wore as my own wedding ring had once touched her hand as well."

She implored anyone who had found the ring to come forward. "Every time I looked at it memories of my wedding and Nanny came over me and now I don't have that link. I wanted to pass on this piece of my grandmother to her namesake, my daughter Olive."

- © Fairfax NZ News