The Diamond That Stays When Everything Else Changes

Journeying through the decades, recounting milestones and memories — each accompanied by the lustre of natural diamonds

By Esha Mahajan | August 7, 2025

Through a woman’s dream, we discover a revelation of truth. How the smallest moments can somehow be the most standout, how your relationship with yourself is the only one that matters, and how objects can connect you to the past and the future. Like a pair of round natural diamond earrings, never owned — only borrowed from one generation for safekeeping until the next. Their custodian since the day she turned 16, she turns to them for the way they not only ground her, but also empower her. Through fragments of first-person narratives, she shapes a real conversation on the evolution of perspective, confidence, and personal style.

Inheriting My First Natural Diamond Heirloom In My 20s

Young woman in her 20s wearing round solitaire diamond earrings

There’s nothing roaring about these twenties. Not even a murmur. I turn the last page of a novel that has captivated social media, only to find that the twentysomething author faced a bidding war over her debut. Me? I’m yet to find my “thing”, amid a graveyard of abandoned hobbies, from crochet to dog training manuals, each once an optimistic path to professional success. The only wars in my life? With my roommates over who’s taking out the trash. What’s a girl to do, then, if not escape for a few moments. Become a person who knows better, does better, feels better. And so I put on my grandmother’s earrings — round solitaire diamonds she wore every single day, whether playing rummy with friends or recovering from an illness. Nothing could take away her shine, she’d say, when I’d visit her at her home. I recall the warm embrace of her living room with its canary yellow sofa, the bright Portuguese tiles that lined her kitchen, the floor to ceiling windows that welcomed the sunshine. As my mind wanders through the corridors of her home, I’m struck by the power of objects and spaces to evoke real memories, to bend time, to sustain relationships. Maybe that’s worth looking into.

Celebrating Life’s Milestones With Natural Diamonds In My 30s

Woman at her engagement wearing round natural diamond earrings

Deep breaths. It’s just an engagement. It can be whatever I want it to be. I interrupt my flustering inner dialogue painting an outward smile as I greet a relative I don’t recognize. I’m at my engagement and yet, nothing about it seems like mine. Who chose the outfit hanging steam-ironed in my room, the one I can barely walk in? Whose idea was the floral jewellery? And why am I still speaking with this woman I don’t know? Many decisions, made under duress or excitement, I can’t say, are no longer mine to control. But perhaps I can still reclaim myself. Wear the flowy dress I had saved for our honeymoon, skip the heels and walk barefoot to the beach, leave the flowers for my niece. And, of course, wear my grandmother’s diamond earrings — a rare connection to a remarkable woman. Honour the woman whose innate confidence I’ve always borrowed like armour, and know that she will always be in my corner, whispering just the right words in my ear.

Natural Diamonds That Kept Me Going In My 40s

A woman in her 40s wearing her grandmother's natural diamond earrings

It’s one of those days. Technically true, but what do you call it when every day of the past couple of weeks has been “one of those days”? The stomach bug that took over the childrens’ school and then my home, the trip down the stairs that led to me in a cast, the puppy whose separation anxiety even CBD can’t cure… then there’s the unfinished drawing on my desk, a design for a penthouse apartment for a client whose Pinterest board is an ever-changing reflection of the latest celebrity home tour on YouTube. One of those days. Manageable, even acceptable actually, I think, as I sit back at my workstation, with Bella at my feet, a pencil in my hand, and my grandmother’s natural diamonds in my ears. I remember the comfort, warmth, and innate style of her home and channel that into my work — it’s never led me astray so far.

Preserving My Natural Diamond Legacy In My 60s

A woman celebrating her 35th anniversary party wearing natural diamond earrings

The only thing I’m “too old” to do is maintain a charade. My life, luckily and blissfully, continues agnostic of age. The weekend running group I joined last year has an upcoming race, my proposal for an apartment building is nearly complete, and I’m in the thick of organising our 35th anniversary party. Which brings me to my revelation. As I look in the mirror, trying on my dress for the event, I bristle at my reflection — my dyed hair stark against the silken grey teal. It never bothered me before, but in the context of a milestone celebration, it seems to erase the past few decades of my life. So I let go. Besides, wouldn’t my silver strands match my diamond earrings — both now totems of age and grace.

Seeing My Natural Diamond Legacy Live On In My 80s

Grandmother at her 80s wearing round diamond earrings for a music festival

A day of many firsts: A music festival, complete with fireworks and acrobats and artistes I have never heard before. A makeover, like in those films from the 1990s, courtesy my granddaughter who planned this trip. An ice cold beer, which still isn’t to my taste and I’ll take a Chardonnay instead please. A day of one last: The round diamond earrings I convinced my granddaughter to let me wear. She doesn’t know it yet, but tomorrow they belong to her.