Dear Annie: A thief in the family?

Dear Annie: My wife and I have always enjoyed hosting events for our family over the years. This past July, for a second time, we hosted a cousins reunion, which brought approximately 40 guests to our home. Our home is not huge, so everyone had access to all parts of it. The children ran and played throughout our home, and the adults were happy to socialize inside and outside.

The reason I am writing is that approximately a month after this event, my wife was going to wear her mother’s wedding ring (a gold band with five large diamonds) to a social event, but she discovered it missing from her jewelry box. She had always kept this ring in a special place in her jewelry box.

Needless to say, it makes us sick to think that someone would have taken this ring, but we have no idea what else could have happened to it. We have asked our children and grandchildren whether they saw anyone looking through her jewelry box, but they said they saw no one. Nothing else in the jewelry box was disturbed. It is coming up on the holidays, and we usually send out a Christmas newsletter about the year’s events. My wife feels guilty because in her mind, this ring was entrusted to her for safekeeping and she failed her mother. We are at a loss as to what to do. Should we mention the ring in this letter or just let it go? – Feeling Betrayed

Dear Feeling Betrayed: Jump to conclusions and you’ll land in a mess. There are many explanations for why the ring has gone missing that don’t involve family betrayal. Maybe it was lost or stolen before the reunion; maybe one of the children decided to use it to propose to a crush. I see no harm in including a brief note about it in your family newsletter. The larger your search party the better your odds. But whatever happens, assure your wife it’s not her fault.