Ring of New Beginnings

Perthshire, 1964 — 7:05 a.m. The first light of day poured through the tearoom window, glinting off a pair of silver tongs resting beside a steaming pot of tea. The tongs were delicate, crowned at each end by a tiny apostle — both facing outward, as if blessing the morning in opposite directions. Agnes Fraser used them every dawn, saying one watched over those arriving, the other over those departing. When she grew older, she had the tongs made into two rings, to be given to her daughters when they left home. The first became The Ring of New Beginnings, its apostle facing east — a token for Margaret, who moved to Edinburgh, carrying her mother’s optimism and the promise of new beginnings.