71-Year-Old Woman Finds 2.63-Carat White Diamond at State Park
Diamonds are, as they say, a girl’s best friend. Yet when we repeat that old saying, we’re normally thinking about wining and dining and a little romance prior to the presentation of a big, shiny rock.
That isn’t always how diamonds turn up, though. Sometimes they appear in the strangest circumstances.
Eighty-six-year-old Mary Grams from Alberta, Canada, got a diamond in a truly odd way. She was weeding on her family’s farm in 2004 when she noticed something.
Her wedding ring had slipped from her finger, and try as she might, she couldn’t find it, according to the BBC. Grams was so embarrassed that she bought a similar-looking substitute and never told her husband.
Fast forward 13 years to when her daughter-in-law, Colleen Daley, lived on the property. While pulling up carrots, Daley glanced at one of the orange tubes — and saw a diamond ring constricting its length.
It was none other than Grams’ long-lost ring, miraculously saved by a salad topping. Grams has since said that she plans to be more careful with it in the future.
“If I am going outside or anything I am going to put it in a safe space,” she told the BBC. “That is what I should have done.”
A 71-year-old Colorado grandmother made a similar discovery in September.
KFSM reported that the anonymous woman had been visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Unique among state parks, Crater of Diamonds sits on an eroded volcanic crater, and visitors can search for and keep any gemstones they find there — including diamonds.
The woman’s search ended surprisingly quickly. After a mere 10 minutes of poking through silt, she discovered a 2.63-carat diamond.
“I was using a rock to scrape the dirt, but don’t know if I uncovered the diamond with it or not,” she said. “It was just lying on the surface!”
The best part? She had no idea that it was actually a diamond. She and her family continued searching for another hour, only learning the true value of what she’d found when staffers told her.
“I didn’t know what to think,” she said. “I was shocked!”
In addition to its size, the ice-white diamond had some unique coloration. Park Interpreter Waymon Cox explained, “Like other rocks and minerals, no two diamonds are exactly alike.
“This white diamond is about the size of a pinto bean and is shaped somewhat like a fingernail. Several brownish, freckle-like marks along the surface give the gem a unique, one-of-a-kind appearance.”
Sally Thompson of Carlisle, England, found a diamond in even more bizarre circumstances. Weeks away from her wedding, she had decided that a bunch of boiled eggs might help her lose weight.
The Daily Mail reported that the bride-to-be got more than she bargained for when she bit into them. What she initially believed to be a bit of gristle turned out to be a tiny cubic zirconia.
As amazing as it sounds, a chicken likely ate a stray zirconia and incorporated the faux jewel into the egg. Former chicken-farm worker Collette Francis said, “Basically the shell coating goes on last and doesn’t harden until it hits the air.
“In this case, it could be (that the) chicken swallows diamond, diamond gets stuck at intestine exit, egg picks up diamond on way out.”
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