Mom's Jewelry

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So last night in the shower I took my wedding ring off. Didn't put it back on this morning. Too tight among other things. So I was looking for a ring to put on and I saw the old cigar band that was in with my mom's jewelry. And it reminded me of a story... It was President's day, 2004, when my dad came by and told me I needed to go to the hospital with him. My mom had fallen, tripped, lost her balance, whatever (I never did get the exact story) and broken her left hip and arm. In one of those stories that illustrates just what's wrong with medical coverage in this country, she was stuck there waiting for another hospital to have an available bed, because her insurance didn't have a contract with the orthopedic group in that hospital. The next day she was transferred, had a pin put into the hip and was later moved to a halfway facility. She gave up smoking, got on anti-depressants, and, shortly before her 70th birthday, she went home. We had a very small gathering, Dad, the four of us and our families, and her best friend Jeannine. Somewhere in there, mom told me that she wanted me to come by and go through her jewelry with her. So I went over the following week and pulled everything out and she told me about each piece (if it had a history). I took it all with me with instructions that it was to be given "mostly all to the grand-kids". There was this old box with a costume jewelry broach in it. Mom told me she didn't know the history, just that it was very, very old. In addition, there was her great-aunt Virginia's broach, her great-aunt Nina's amethyst necklace, her great-aunt Maude's pearls and a crystal necklace that her grandmother gave to her mom as a wedding present. She even gave me her engagement ring. The only thing she kept was her wedding ring. A month after her birthday, I got a call from my dad. Mom had passed away in the doctor's office. Ironically, she had first gone to the Orthopod and gotten released to get up and start walking. Then she went to her own doctor as she was having problems with weakness and some other things. Dad rolled her wheelchair into the waiting room, but she had given him orders that if she fell asleep, not to wake her up. So when the nurse came in to check on her, she was already gone. We don't really know if it was heart failure due to all the years of smoking or if, more likely, it was a blood clot due to being bedridden for 2 months. Anyway, dad wanted to be alone that evening, so I stayed home and went through the jewelry again. I don't know why, but when I pulled out the box with the broach, I shook it. To my surprise, it rattled. When I looked under the lining, there were a couple of what appeared to be tie tacks and a cigar band wedding ring. The ring has "PAT 1848" engraved on the inside. If those are initials, could be this belonged to somebody on the Thomas side of the family, but I really don't know. So today I am wearing a piece of family history that is a mystery!