WILLIAMSBURG — An accident involving his wedding ring was alleviated for Larry Childs thanks to some good advice at Williamsburg Hardware and swift action at MurDuff’s Jewelry in Florence.
Childs was having a dump truck deliver gravel to his Williamsburg home, and as he was climbing down, his ring finger caught on the truck ladder’s textured edge.
“I was coming down with force,” Childs said. “The ring actually twisted a bit.”
As a result, Childs’ finger got scraped and the ring tore into it. Childs was unable to get the ring off, and he worried about what would happen if his finger continued to swell.
“My first stop, right along the way, was Williamsburg Hardware,” Childs said.
However, a tool to get the ring off was not found at the hardware store.
“We didn’t have anything in the store that could safely remove the ring for him,” Lynn Martus said.
Martus, the woman behind the counter that day, made a call to hardware store owner Greg Conz and then conveyed a recommendation to Childs to go to MurDuff’s Jewelry.
“If we can’t solve a problem then we try our best to recommend another local business who can help them out,” Martus said.
Childs said he wanted to avoid the time, expense and paperwork of going to the emergency room, and MurDuff’s happened to be on the way to Cooley Dickinson Hospital. When he got to MurDuff’s, Catherine Ahearn and Paul Piquette were able to cut the ring off utilizing a tool that gets under the ring with one part and cuts through the ring with another.
“It took two minutes,” Childs said.
He also noted that “it was clearly not the first time they had cut off a ring.”
Ahearn said that staff cut rings off almost weekly at MurDuff’s, but usually it’s because the rings need to be resized.
“I’m glad I saved him a trip to the emergency room,” Ahearn said.
Piquette also noted that taking off rings is routine at MurDuff’s, and that the tool they use preserves the ring and doesn’t damage the finger of the individual. After the tool cuts through the ring, it is pulled back with a pair of special pliers.
“We talk them through the whole thing,” he said.
Childs said that that he will wear his wedding ring again after his finger heals, but he will more readily take it off in the future when doing certain tasks.
The Goshen Historical Museum hasn’t been open to the general public since 2019. And although there were plans to reopen it in August, curator Noreen Roberts and the Select Board have decided against doing so.
“It seemed best not to open it up,” Roberts said, who attributed the decision to the state of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roberts said the museum is normally open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and that it hadn’t opened in 2020 because of the pandemic. Before the decision to not open was made, the plan was for the museum to be open for four Sundays in August.
“I was really looking forward to it,” Roberts said
Those who want to see the Goshen museum still do have a pathway, however. Roberts’ number is on the door of the museum, and she is willing to give tours of the space to small groups.
Roberts also said that she plans on doing a presentation on local geology and the local stone used to build the Town Hall when the museum reopens.
A free workshop is being offered by the Dakin Humane Society for those who want to make provisions for their pets after they die.
The workshop, “When It’s All Going to the Dogs,” will take place over Zoom on Aug. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. Registration for this free workshop will be open until the workshop starts, and can be done at https://bit.ly/DakinPetEstate .
The workshop will be put on by Attorney Gina Barry of Bacon Wilson P.C. Some of the topics covered will be structuring a will to provide for a pet, pet trusts and necessary documents to protect pets.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.