Staff Photo by Mariann Martin/Chattanooga Times Free Press
This .72-carat diamond ring, donated to the Salavation Army, is on display
at Maryville Jewelers and will be sold to the highest bidder after 30 days.DALTON, Ga. — Several days before Christmas, a couple approached a North Georgia Salvation Army bell ringer and handed her a diamond wedding ring and a note.
The note, in hand-written red letters, said, “My husband and I are still deeply in love. We think you could make better use of this ring than we can.”
The unusual and touching donation — a $6,000, 0.72-carat ring dropped in a red kettle with dollar bills and scattered coins — now is on display at downtown Dalton’s Maryville Jewelers, where it will be sold to the highest bidder after 30 days.
Maj. Henry Hunter, with the Dalton Corps of the Salvation Army, said he was shocked and stunned when he heard about the donation.
“Wow — to share that kind of love with your spouse; to make a lady willing to give up a diamond ring,” he said Tuesday. “It shows it’s not material things that hold a marriage together. It is love.”