Sandy Sikorski and Ken Steinkamp have been regulars at “The Bridge Restaurant and Raw Bar” for four years now, but neither of them ever expected to have as great of a meal as they had in December. This Rhode Island couple was enjoying their meal with Sandy’s brother and his wife when something unusual happened. While Sandy was eating the last clam, she noticed something strange and spit it out.
No doubt concerned, Sandy’s sister-in-law initially thought it was a tooth. Looking closer at the unknown object, however, it was clear that wasn’t the case. Instead, it was a particularly large and well-rounded pearl — 9.8 millimeters to be exact.
Sandy and Ken took their incredible find to a local jewelry store, The Compass Rose. From there, they were referred to their jewelry maker, Marc Fishbone, who was thrilled to create a ring from the beautiful pearl.
“He said it is called a Mercenaria pearl which is a mollusk type of little animal which makes what looks like a little pearl,” Sandy recalled. “It’s made out of the same material, calcite, and another mineral in it and takes years and years to grow. He said the weight of this, and the size of this, is probably 50 years to make.”
According to WJAR, finding a pearl at all in a clam like that is a one in 100,000 odds. On top of that, according to jeweler Marc, finding one this perfect is even rarer.
“He goes, ‘It’s probably one in a million, one in a million to have it perfect,'” Sandy said. “‘Usually, there’s pieces of them missing and it looks like a tooth or something. It is never like a whole perfect little oval. Plus, it’s big.'”
Given the rarity of this find, and the couple’s love for one another, the two of them took it as a sign that maybe it was time for them to get married. That’s why, on July 8, Ken popped the question using the gorgeous pearl ring – and Sandy said yes!
“It’s been going well and we’re not getting any younger and we felt in a way that this was kind of a signal or an odd bit of synchronicity and we said, ‘This would be a great engagement ring and so it is,'” Ken said.
Naturally, the two of them chose to celebrate their engagement at “The Bridge Restaurant and Raw Bar.” Folks here couldn’t be happier for their regulars. Plus, their story has other wondering if they, too, might be so lucky one day.
“A man posted he had shucked 100,000 oysters in his day and he never found one pearl or one of those,” Sandy said.
“The more you think about it, it does become a more charming and romantic story,” Ken added.
You can find the sources of this story’s featured image here and here!
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