DEAR ABBY: "Loving Daughter in Lakeland, Fla." wrote that her father had a college ring he never removed, but at his death she took the ring off to keep in his memory. She asked, "Did we do the right thing?" Your reply, "Yes, without a doubt."
You were wrong. My late wife never wanted her wedding ring removed. When she underwent serious surgery, she said, "Don't let them take the ring off." As death neared, she was concerned that the funeral directors might do so.
When the time came to close the coffin, I leaned down for one last kiss, placed my hand over her cold one, touched the ring and said, "You got your wish. That ring never left your finger since I put it on, years ago."
The body disintegrates after death, but gold is eternal. As long as our civilization survives, in that grave will be a circle of gold, memorializing a love that once existed.
"Loving Daughter's" father must have had a similar bond to his college. The ring should have remained with him throughout eternity. -- ALONE WITH MEMORIES
DEAR ALONE: Please accept my sympathy on the loss of your beloved wife. You were honoring your wife's wishes by seeing that she was buried with her ring. "Loving Daughter," however, had never heard her father express such a sentiment. For her to have buried the ring, rather than keeping it to cherish, would have benefited no one.