“All of a sudden I feel this hard thing, like, in my mouth, like what is this,” Sandra Sikorski says.
A Rhode Island couple's rare find at a restaurant became their lifetime treasure.
The couple was at their favorite restaurant eating a dish of clams when Sandra Sikorski suddenly bit down on something unusual.
“All of a sudden I feel this hard thing, like, in my mouth, like, what is this,” Sikorski says.
She thought she lost a tooth, but it turned out to be a rare pearl, called a mercenaria pearl.
“I freaked out when I saw it. I said, ‘oh my God, what are the odds,” Sikorski says.
The pearl is a one in a million find.
The couple decided right then it was finally time to get married. Sikorski is 70 years old, Ken Steinkamp is 75.
“I said, well, we gotta make a proposal out of this thing. This is gonna be official,” Steinkamp says.
They turned the pearl into the centerpiece for their engagement ring.
“I was surprised to see this size in the clarity. No blemishes in the luster of the pearl. It’s unusual,” Marc Fishbone of Black Ground Jewelers says.
Steinkamp got down on one bent knee and asked for Sikorski’s hand in marriage with a ring that will always remind them of the night a clam told them their love was meant to be.
