Brooch Written By: anneboleynlover
Author's Summary: Ami did like brooches.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. I ended up not writing fanfiction for a while so I may be rusty. I feel fine with constructive criticism, but no flames. Please read and review!
Ami did like brooches. A brooch had been a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments often to fasten them together. Brooches come to be usually be made with metal often of silver or gold and decorated with enamel or gemstones. Her mother did form a love of brooches in her at an early age.
"Ami," Saeko said to her one day when she was little, "I have something to show you."
"What, Mommy?" Ami asked.
Saeko opened a small box in which laid a brooch. "This brooch," Saeko answered, " is a one of kind piece of jewelry as it is a beautiful blue sapphire brooch. It costs a lot of money. It did happen to be passed down from mother to daughter for generations in my family. My mother ended up inheriting from your great-grandmother as she was the only girl amongst her siblings. I found out that it was made by a well-respected jeweler back in the late 1800s and it got to be one of the finest pieces that he ever made. It has a lot of sentimental value in my family. I hope to pass it off to you when you are old enough to be trusted to wear it without losing it as it is that priceless to my side of your family."
"It is pretty, Mommy!" Ami agreed. "What was the jeweler's name who made it?"
"Ibu Shibata," Saeko answered.
"How did your family get, Mommy?" Ami burst out.
"Your great-grandmother," Saeko continued, "was a brilliant and compassionate woman who always did her best to help others as a midwife even though she came from a well-to-do family just like I did. Ibu Shibata's wife did get pregnant and had a hard time delivering her firstborn child, so your great-grandmother offered her assistance in delivering the child. It ended up being a good thing she was there as unlike most midwives she washed her hands with soap and water before she helped as she knew the importance of cleanliness when it came to deliver a baby. The baby got to be born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his throat and had difficulty breathing and nearly died until your great-grandmother cut it off and got him breathing again. Iba Shibata had designed this brooch as thanks for his gratitude for saving his firstborn son's life. It was a rougher time living back then as most people died in their thirties or forties and the help of a good midwife to deliver children was seen as an importance back then as many children were born stillborn or died shortly after birth."
"So, she was into medicine too?" Ami commented.
"Yes," Saeko confirmed. "A desire to enter a career in medicine is a part of my family's genes. I became a doctor because I wanted to be help those in need of good medical care as it is the right thing to do. You can help save people' s lives and that is one of the most important things any human being can do. You do earn people's gratitude if you do so and some like to show you that gratitude. She ended up not wanting to take the brooch from him, but he would not take no for an answer, so she reluctantly accepted the gift."
"Did your mommy give it to you when you became a doctor?" Ami asked.
"No," Saeko answered. "She gave it to me when I turned fourteen years old. That was the age she thought would be old enough to trust me to not lose it and when you are fourteen is when I will give it to you. "
That was a promise her mother kept as she gave her the blue sapphire brooch when she was fourteen years old, and Ami wore it with pride as she knew just how much it meant to the women in her family.