Broken Worry Beads

I wasn’t there when it happened but I could hear the dismay at the other end of the house. The amber worry beads were scattered all over the floor. For whatever reason, the string broke after twenty four years. My husband got those beads when we visited Iran in 1996. He bought them at the bazaar near his old house where his father used to have a shop. He was always jingling his keys - which was rather noisy - so he tried a few strings of beads just to stay busy. Gradually the need for the beads subsided and this amber set was put aside to admire more than use. So we gathered them up and tried putting them back together. I looked for string, thread, wire - anything. But not even thread and needle would fit through the tiny holes of the beads. How on earth they were made in the first place was beyond us. It’s almost as if they were strung, then heated and melted shut. So the beads now sit in a baggie until we can figure out how to repair them. At least we have all the pieces. 

Amber Beads

Back in 1996 we took a trip to Iran to visit my husband’s family. It was my first overseas trip. We went on this visit for three weeks to potentially adopt a young child and for me to meet a lot of relatives. It was a very exciting adventure. That was over twenty years ago. In the end the adoption just wasn’t possible for a variety of reasons beyond our control. So much has changed since then. Our two nieces and nephew are very grown up - two are married, with children, living in other countries. We stay in contact to this day. Many of the people I met are no longer with us. This week I was reminded of this remarkable journey by a string of amber beads. I don’t recall exactly where we got them, but I think my husband’s brother had something to do with it. They are “prayer beads” and are quite heavy. Out of curiosity I asked my husband about the value of these beads. He started examining them closely with a magnifying glass and flashlight to see if there were any bugs or plant life inside. I don’t think there is. But it hardly matters because this little trinket means a lot to us and is priceless. I kept a lot of the photographs and look at them occasionally. It was probably one of the most memorable places I have ever been. And the amber beads are simply lovely.