Alexandra Shulman has described a series of mishaps involving her late mother’s jewellery, saying they have felt like clear signs that she was not meant to wear it.
Shulman’s mother died in February, leaving jewellery which had little financial value but was divided among her children rather than thrown away. Shulman chose a bracelet by designer Pippa Small, made with small unpolished gemstones, and the plain watch her mother wore every day.
The watch, with its slim black strap and Roman-numeral face, disappeared within weeks. Shulman searched extensively, including the recycling bins, but could not find it.
A trainer at her local gym then told her that his Iranian mother said a special prayer whenever someone in the family lost something. He advised Shulman to tie a knot in a piece of fabric and leave it tied until the missing item was recovered.
Three weeks later, the watch was found down the side of a sofa. But after Shulman put it back on, its front glass fell out and the mechanism stopped working.
The bracelet has proved no less troublesome. It first broke while Shulman was asleep, leaving her to wake up among the scattered stones. After it was restrung, the chain snapped again in a shop last week, sending the gems across the floor.
“Mama, I hear you!” Shulman wrote, suggesting that the repeated failures had begun to feel like a message from her mother.
