The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives
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Jenny burst into tears. Then Albert cried, too. He knew he’d found the perfect gift.
Six months later, Jenny still raves about her birthday present. “I know it was only a piece of jewelry,” she says, “but with it my parents gave me a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, in Cudjoe Key, twenty miles north of Key West, Judi Gibbs had called her neighbor Mary O’Connor every time Mary came to town. “Do you have the necklace?” Judi would ask. The two women’s Florida visits often overlapped but not when Mary was wearing the necklace. Finally, after two and a half years, Mary O’Connor called her friend and neighbor. “I’ve got the necklace,” she said, “and some of the women, too.”
Judi Gibbs, fifty-nine, a retired accounting professor, was so excited that she immediately called her women’s group, the Divine Divas, to come to her home to meet the Ventura women and see their diamond necklace up close. Four hours later, nine Divas greeted five women of Jewelia. Within seconds of walking in the house, Mary unclasped the diamonds from around her neck.
“What are you doing?” Judi asked.
“I’m taking it off so you can wear it,” Mary answered, transferring the necklace to Judi.
“Oh my gosh!” Judi exclaimed, literally jumping, racing to the mirror, jumping again. “Oh my gosh!”
Judi turned to Mary. “I thought you’d just bring it in a jewelry box and we’d look at it. I never imagined I’d get to wear it!” She ran to the mirror again. “I’ve got to change my clothes!”
Judi ran to her bedroom to trade her collared, long-sleeved white cotton shirt for a low-cut tank top. “Oh my gosh!’ she said again and again, running back to the mirror, her smile as wide as Carol Channing’s, whom she resembled. While Judi was prancing around the room, the Divas, ranging in age from fifty to eighty-two, besieged the Ventura women with questions: How does the sharing work? How do you raise money? Can we start a charter group?
IN THE END, a diamond necklace did make a statement, not about wealth and status, but about the needs that cross cultures and link generations, the connections that transcend time and place. There may be no escaping our material culture, but thirteen women in Ventura, California, showed that we can reframe it on our terms.
The women of Jewelia transformed a symbol of privilege into an experiment in humanity. In so doing, they rewrote the narrative of desire.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
. . .
Thanks to agents David Kuhn and Lisa Bankoff for creating the collaboration; editor Susan Mercandetti for envisioning the story’s structure; the people of Ventura County for generously giving their time to be interviewed; Michael Parrish for providing invaluable counsel; Jane Ferry for offering honest feedback and support; Dina Pielaet for taking such wonderful photographs; Martha Baker for editing with insight and flair; and Abigail Plesser for delightfully shepherding the manuscript through production.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHERYL JARVIS is a journalist and essayist and the author of The Marriage Sabbatical: The Journey That Brings You Home. Her byline has appeared in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Reader’s Digest. A former television producer and magazine and newspaper editor, she has taught writing at the University of Southern California and at Washington University and Webster University in St. Louis.
ALSO BY
Cheryl Jarvis
THE
MARRIAGE
SABBATICAL
Copyright © 2008 by The Women of Jewelia LLC
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
The necklace : thirteen women and the experiment that transformed their lives / The women of Jewelia and Cheryl Jarvis.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-50947-5
1. Women—Social networks—United States. 2. Necklaces—Social aspects—United States. I. Jarvis, Cheryl.
HQ1421.N45 2008
302.3'40820979492—dc22 2008023625
www.ballantinebooks.com
Chapter opening photographs © Dina Pielaet
Unless otherwise indicated, all other photographs are courtesy of the women of Jewelia
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