Business & Tech

Mervis Matriarch Searches for Lost Diamond Ring in the Rough of Rockville

Diamond sellers ask the community for help finding a lost family treasure.

 

Masha Mervis and her family have spent decades finding the right diamond ring for customers of their family business. 

Now, the family behind Mervis Diamond Importers is calling on the community to help their matriarch find a diamond ring of her own.

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Masha Mervis recently lost a ring that her late husband, Morris, gave her on their 50th wedding anniversary, said Jonathan Mervis, the couple’s grandson.

“Our whole family is asking for the community to help out,” Jonathan Mervis said.

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Masha Mervis noticed that the ring was missing on the afternoon of Nov. 7 as she shopped at Comfort One Shoes on Rockville Pike.

“That doesn’t mean she lost it there,” Jonathan Mervis said. She had it that morning. “So, it’s probably in Rockville somewhere,” he said.

Jonathan Mervis delivered news on the Mervis Diamond Blog last week, along with a photo of the yellow gold ring with the center emerald cut diamond and two smaller emerald cut diamonds on either side.

“I think somebody found it but doesn’t know what to do with it, where to go,” he said.

The family is offering “a cash reward and the endless gratitude and appreciation of the Mervis family,” Jonathan Mervis wrote on the blog. “Masha will also invite you over to the Mervis home for a feast of chicken soup and traditional South African foods.”

Comfort One Shoes is offering a $1,000 gift certificate to their store to anyone who turns the ring in, Jonathan Mervis said. 

Though not her original engagement ring, the ring was designed and created by Morris Mervis, who founded the family business. 

“As a jeweler, this was the piece that he gave to her,” Jonathan Mervis said.

The couple was married 67 years until Morris Mervis’ death in 2005 and the family said the ring was a symbol of a love story that spanned three continents.

Jonathan Mervis recounted on the blog that his grandparents were elementary school friends in Lithuania before his grandfather left for South Africa. One day in 1938, Morris Mervis saw a truck with Masha’s family riding in it. He followed, caught up with the family and reunited with Masha, who was visiting on a six-month visa that took the family out of Europe on the brink of World War II.

The two married so that Masha could immigrate to South Africa and would not have to return to Lithuania. While the marriage was “for legal purposes,” Jonathan Mervis said, “over time they fell in love." 

“She was at the beginning of the whole company, really, in 1938 when they got married,” Jonathan Mervis said. “And they built the company from there.”

This is not the first lost diamond ring search for the Mervises. Several years ago, the company, which has stores in Tysons Corner, VA, and Washington, DC, as well as Rockville, launched a search for the owner of a 3-carat ring worth $40,000.

A Virginia couple found the ring in the Tysons Corner Center mall parking lot and noticed the name “Mervis” on the inscription. They took it to the Mervises, who helped launch a media campaign that included this Associated Press story, which is now posted on YouTube.

Ultimately, the owner was found.

Now, the Mervises are hoping for a similar happy ending.

Jonathan Mervis said he is confident that “there are good people who will return things.”

If you’re one of those people, or know someone who is, and know anything about a recently found ring, email Jonathan Mervis at jmervis@mervisdiamond.com .


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