Emotions ran high in the latest episode of BBC’s The Repair Shop. Viewers were introduced to Halina and her daughter Lesley, who brought with them a broken silver ring with a moving story.
Halina laid it on the workbench and admitted that it was “dented” before explaining that the ring had once belonged to her mother, Janina. The ring, whose band was broken, came from the Jewish ghetto during World War II.
The Repair Shop guest said: “She was not Jewish. In 1939, my mother was 13 years old. When she came home from school, her street had been bombed. She saw her mother lying dead on the ground and was terribly afraid.”
Halina said that her mother’s father had gone to war and she never found out what had happened to him. Since she had no family nearby, Janina turned to the church for help.
However, they rejected her because they were full and sent her to the monastery behind the Jewish ghetto. There, Janina and other orphans brought food to the people in the ghetto.
However, when her male friend was captured and killed, her mother was told to leave the monastery because it was too unsafe. When asked about the ring, Halina said they believed it came from a Jewish woman as a thank you.
When talking about her mother, she became emotional and revealed that the ring broke a few weeks after her mother’s death.
When Richard asked her what she wanted from him, she replied, “I was thinking about the ring, but we’ve talked about it and I want to use it as a pendant. My daughter loves necklaces and they are close to her heart, aren’t they?”
When the couple left the workshop and the expert had the ring in his care, he was aware of its significance.
He said: “I feel very honoured to hold this in my hands now.”
Wanting to keep as much of the original ring as possible, Richard explained that he would saw off the shoulders of the ring, melt them down, and make a new piece of metal through which the chain could be threaded.
However, Richard told BBC viewers that he would not remove the brown stains on the trailer for a reason.
He commented: “This has happened over the life of the ring, so if I were to remove one of them, I would be doing it a disservice as it has so much history to tell.”
He spoke about Janina’s courage at such a young age and what the ring symbolized, adding: “It was really a great honor to be able to work on this.”
When Halina and her daughter witnessed the transformation, they were speechless and gasped in awe.
When her daughter put it on, Halina commented, “This is fucking awesome.”
When they learned that the cut pieces of the ring were also there, they both couldn’t believe what Richard had accomplished.
When Jay Blades asked what her mother would think of it, the guest replied, “She would be absolutely over the moon. This ring has been through a lot, as has my mother and many others with her, so it’s just too beautiful to wear.”
“The Repair Shop” is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
