A widow has gone viral after revealing her former sister-in-law demanded she give back jewelry made from her dead husband's wedding ring.
The 27-year-old woman took to Reddit to explain she is now engaged to another man after her first husband died five months into their marriage when his car collided with a drunk driver.
Since his death around five years ago she had the rings melted down and used the gold and stones to make a necklace and a pair of earrings.
She remained close to her 29-year-old sister-in-law who she called 'Ava.'
However, the widow was left stunned when 'Ava' asked for the jewelry back following the news of her new engagement last month.
A woman, 27, created a Reddit post on June 18 and claimed that her former sister-in-law, Ava, requested a necklace that featured her late fiancé's wedding ring
Ava congratulated the Reddit user on her engagement before she requested to have the necklace
In a Reddit post from June 18, the user called SleeplessYellowSun wrote: 'Last weekend [Ava] invited me out for drinks. We caught up a bit before she congratulated me on my engagement,
She then asked me if she could have my necklace since it would mean more to her as his sister then it would to me now that I was getting remarried and moving on. Which honestly stunned me that anyone would outright ask for something like that.'
The woman had married her high school sweetheart when she was 22.
She explained how she struggled to move on from his death so soon into their marriage and didn't want to keep their wedding rings hidden away in a drawer.
'I took them to a jeweler and had his and my rings melted down and used the gold and the stones to make a pendant and some small stud earrings,' she said.
'I have the earrings in my jewelry box, and I wear the necklace every day. One, I like the way it looks, and two, I like the idea of always having a tangible part of him with me.'
The Reddit user added that one of the rings in the necklace contained a small emerald that she and her late husband found at a jewelry store on vacation.
'Ava' had never requested the necklace before despite her and her brother's late wife keeping in touch.
She added:'I still have a lot of love for her, but our relationship has changed drastically, and her asking me what she did and how she worded it was really not in the realm of anything I thought she would say or ask of me.'
She went on to point out that her former sister-in-law already owns some of her late brother's belongings, including childhood memorabilia and clothing.
After her get-together with Ava, the poster told her best friend, 28, who suggested she should hand the necklace back.
'She said that it seemed strange that I was still so attached to it given its history and my new engagement,' the Reddit user explainer.
'She thinks I should probably give it to Ava as it would mean more to her, and I should shed anything from my old life and embrace my new one.'
Her best friend also suggested that she get another necklace and make new memories.
In her post, the widow insisted that she had moved on and was 'completely happy' in her relationship.
'I am so excited for the life we are creating together,' she wrote.
'But a part of me will always love my former husband and mourn him and the life we could have had together, and I don’t think that takes away anything from my new relationship. They are different loves and lives.'
She added she now understands the loss of her first husband by visualizing a soul being like 'a bubble that grows' and that the experiences and relationships are 'just floating around it.'
'Good experiences and relationships add things to the bubble that makes it beautiful like little bits of glitter and flowers and fluffiness,' she wrote.
'I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it has always helped me to remember that fresh, fiery pain won’t feel like that forever and that I will bump up against something fluffy and kind and happy.'
The newly engaged Reddit user married her high school sweetheart when she was 22. He was killed five months later in a car accident
She claimed her fiancé 'does not care' if she keeps the necklace and that he knows the Reddit user loves him despite the loss of her first husband.
'He understands that I will always have some level of grief and that he loves how I have loved and keep loving and how I embrace life and people because of my experience.'
Over 1,000 Reddit users have commented on the post, many of which were from individuals who claimed the widow was in the right.
One wrote:'The necklace is yours and it is wildly inappropriate for your former sister- in-law to ask for it.'
'I'm sure she has other things that remind her of her brother. Of course, they're probably not jewels but she has no connection to the ones in the necklace as you and he picked them out together.'
Other users have wondered why Ava would want to have their wedding rings and one person wrote that her wanting to keep them for herself was 'deeply wrong on every level.'
'That necklace was made from your wedding rings - so it is also part of you,' one Reddit user wrote.
It is symbolic of your time with him and the important role he had in your life, and your fiancé understands that.'
