The engagement ring’s life with the Miller family started – and almost ended – perilously close to the Earth.
In October, 2012, the round-cut diamond dangled from Josh Miller’s shoelace as he kicked up dust along the trail to the Griffith Observatory with Jessica, his future betrothed.
The sunset hike was the site of their first date four years earlier. The perfect place for a proposal.
Securing the ring to his hiking boot meant Josh could bend down to lace up and already be on one knee.
He tied it up pretty tightly on that shoelace, said Jessica recently, remembering her proposal day and those innocent, early years, when life was prescribed.
The white-gold, round diamond witnessed all those seasons of love.
It helped unpack boxes on move-in day in leafy Altadena, in a modest home less than a mile from where she grew up. The ring visited neighborhood parks and favorite trails. It shined bright during anniversary and birthday dinners at local restaurants.
A few years later, the ring would snag on the cottony thread of her infant daughter’s onesie.
And, fewer than eight months ago, the diamond was a reminder of industriousness as Jessica carried expensive graphics equipment through their backyard to the shed-turned-art-studio, thanks to Miller’s savings of $30,000.
Then, on Jan. 7, with fire consuming brush in Eaton Canyon four miles away, Jessica took off the diamond ring along with her wedding band. She placed them on her nightstand.
“I was under the impression that we would be back in 48 hours,” Jessica explained.
The frightened young family fled, even though they had not yet received an evacuation order, like many who resided west of Lake Avenue.
The next day, the Miller’s single-story bungalow on East Palm Street, along with most others on that street, lay in charred ruins.
That night, the Eaton fire killed 18 people and ravaged more than 9,000 structures.
The largest wildfire in L.A. County’s history robbed Altadena residents of not only their belongings, but their sense of belonging.
Shortly after the fire, Josh and a friend suited up in hazmat suits and spent nine hours searching unrecognizable ruins, sifting ash. They found the wedding band, but not the diamond ring.
“We figured the engagement ring was gone for good,” Jessica said.
In the intervening three months, Josh went to the homesite at least six more times, desperate to find the ring, still hopeful. Jessica, however, wasn’t so sure.
“I was resigned to the fact that we had given it back to the Earth,” she said.
During that same time, Dejaun Jewelers of Woodland Hills/Thousand Oaks put out a social media call to Eaton and Palisades fire victims. They would donate replacement rings to a few people who had lost theirs. Because, in the wording of the company’s Instagram post, “Love is unbreakable–even when life takes unexpected turns.”
Jessica’s friends prompted her to apply. She did. And, she was chosen.
But the Millers didn’t give up on the original engagement ring.
Josh had meticulously tracked each area where he searched the burn scar. So when the couple called upon the nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse to assist in sifting, a volunteer knew right where to pick up.
Within 10 minutes of searching on March 19, with Josh alongside, a volunteer uncovered the ring.
“It was wild,” Jessica said. “He called me and he’s like ‘We found it!’ He got really emotional at the site.”
Remarkable, because so much of Eaton fire’s fuel – from heirlooms to hairpins – are unrecognizable.
But the diamond ring, the Miller’s talisman, still looked like one.
It was, however, caked in cemented ash, said Jessica. More than half of the small diamonds in the halo surrounding the center stone were missing.
The big diamond itself was burned.
Jessica was shocked to learn diamonds – Earth’s hardest naturally occurring substance – can burn. They can indeed, if it’s hot enough, the jeweler told her.
It’s still painful for Jessica to think about that ring, encased in ash for weeks before it was delivered back from the Earth. Its memories seared into its once brilliant facets.
“It was comforting that we could find it,” Jessica said. “Like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Now, the ring is an artifact, Jessica said. She plans to clean it and commemorate it in a small shadow box.
She never thought about recreating the ring, she said.
“It’s so painful to think about,” Jessica said of the old round ring, the ring that held so much hope for the future, so much love. “I want to hold the memory, but keep it separate.
Jessica – along with thousands of other Eaton fire survivors – is reluctantly starting over, she said, as she fights the pain of losing everything.
“I feel incredibly sad,” she said as tears began. “I didn’t ask for this. I just got thrown into it. I have to figure out what I’m going to do.”
So, when she chose her new ring from a group of seven from Dejaun, Jessica opted for contrast.
Instead of round, the new ring is elongated. Instead of vertical, the new ring is a horizontal, east/west setting. Instead of white gold, the new ring has 18K yellow gold.
“I have a new life now and now I have a new ring,” she said.