The story of one couple who sold a family heirloom has been gathering quite a severe amount of attention online, especially as the story turned out to be less clear-cut than it initially appeared to be.
Family disputes are never pleasant, but this tale of one family who were facing a terrible decision while in dire straits has had the internet split as to whether they acted justly or not under the given circumstances.
RELATED STORIES
The tale started with an honest admission.
The story was first posted on Reddit , to a community where people share their own tumultuous personal experiences in order to garner advice and run the gauntlet of public opinion.
The story started with one husband explaining, “Honestly, COVID-19 hit me (34M) and my wife (32F) pretty hard. I was let down and my wife’s salary isn’t sufficient to support the both of us and our son (3M).” Sadly, this is a situation that a lot of people have found themselves in over the last year and a half.
In order to make ends meet, the couple had to sell some personal effects.
The husband wrote that he and his wife sold a lot of important possessions in order to make ends meet. Ultimately, however, he explained, “My wife and I had both decided our marriage meant more than her wedding ring – we decided to pawn it and received a sufficient amount.”
The ring had apparently been a gift his grandmother given to him and his wife just before she had passed, although “extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures,” he went on to write.
The ring sale helped them financially, but the rest of the family weren’t best pleased when they found out.
It is now roughly eight months since they sold the ring, and the news came out during a somewhat fractious Zoom call with their family, as he wrote: “I was in our weekly zoom calls with my extended family, and my mother casually mentioned the ring to my sister who is currently ring-shopping and preparing to get married in the fall. She asked my wife to show it to her again, which called for a very awkward pause.”
The family were absolutely livid when they found out what fate had befallen the ring, with the husband’s sister asking why they hadn’t simply asked the family for financial help.
“Apparently, the ring meant more to my mother than anyone. I had no clue of [its] significance, including the fact that it was considered ‘the family heirloom,'” the husband continued.
Their family quickly demanded that the couple buy the ring back, but the couple refused!
The husband explained that they hadn’t wanted to owe money to their sister and her husband, which is understandable. However, their mother was quick to demand that they return to the pawnbroker and repurchase the ring after she had contacted them to find that the ring hadn’t yet been sold on. And this is where things got a little spicy, with the husband ending the story by writing:
“Honestly, we’re financially stable enough to rebuy the ring, my sister even contacted the shop and they said they still have it available for purchase. But we made the conscious choice to sell it and told her we refuse to rebuy it. I feel kind of bad but it was still a gift to us. Selling it was more symbolic than anything and deeply strengthened me and my wife’s relationship […]
“The ring is open for my sister to buy if she chooses to, but I personally will not buy it again.”
The fact that the couple could easily buy the family heirloom back but refused was not taken well by the general public.
The husband and his wife were quickly found to be in the wrong in this particular situation, with a lot of people having been on their side right up until the end of the story.
The top comment on the thread somewhat irately explained, “Oh I almost made it to the end without judging you […] but that little bit about you could buy it [back] but you just refuse to even though you now know it is a family heirloom…”
There were some people who stuck up for the couple though, defending their right to sell the ring.
There were a couple of people who took to the comments to defend the couple, with one of the most popular posts in their defence being, “the sister is obviously in a much better financial position so she can buy the ring if she wants it so badly. So can the mother.”
Another defender of the couple fervently wrote, “it was your ring, it was given to you as a gift and its significance to other family members is irrelevant. You sold it because you needed [to], you have no obligation to buy it back just because you can. If it means that much to them your family can buy it back. Also if you buy it back wouldn’t you be keeping it anyway? It’s not like they will get their hands on it?”
Ultimately, the husband returned to his post to clarify his position after reading the responses.
Quite often when deemed to be in the wrong in a thread, the people who wrote it simply disappear into the woodwork of embarrassment, never to be heard from again. However, the husband who posted the story eventually updated the thread, by writing:
“Hello everyone. The consensus has been made loud and clear. I don’t know what got over us; we will be buying the wedding ring as a gift for my sister as one of the commenters suggested. Thank you all for your advice.”
So, there was a happy ending of sorts… Right?
While a lot of people were very happy to hear that this person had seen the error of his ways and was working to patch things up with his family, there were still a handful of irate people who didn’t feel that he needed to make such a gesture.
Where do you stand on this, do you think he was right to admit his fault and purchase the ring back for his sister? Be sure to let us know in the comments!
h/t: Reddit
