A group of women buy a $37,000 diamond necklace with the idea of using it as a tool to improve their lives and to get together to share stories.
By Joe Fasbinder / Special to The Malibu Times
Jewelia came to the Malibu Lion’s Club on March 29, but not a soul asked Jewelia a question.
The event was to introduce the Thirteen Women of Jewelia to the club, which counts among its members Mary Osborn, daughter-in-law of Malibu resident Beverly Estill and one of the founding members of a sisterhood centered on a very special necklace.
The event was not a fundraiser. The Thirteen Women of Jewelia have had a couple of those, and plan a third for May in Ventura, aimed at a variety of charities. At each stop, Jewelia, a $37,000 diamond necklace, was the center of attention. Not the star, but the center of attention.
The star in this instance is the sisterhood that travels with the diamond necklace, the Thirteen Women of Jewelia. They’re a group of women who live in or near Ventura who got together with the idea of buying this very expensive piece of jewelry and using it as a tool to improve their lives and to get together to share stories.
There used to be an even dozen members of the group, but that changed the day they bought the diamonds.
“In about September 2004, one of our friends, Jonelle McLain, went to the Pacific View shopping mall with her elderly mother and spotted Jewelia in the window of the Van Gundy’s jewelry store,” group member Osborn said.
The first woman to try on Jewelia wasn’t even a member of the group. It was McLain’s mother. The 118 diamonds-a total of 16.25 carats-looked fabulous. An idea was born.
McLain thought this $37,000 necklace was too much for one woman to own and decided she would get together with some girlfriends to buy the necklace, and thus was born the Thirteen Women of Jewelia. Almost.
There were only 12 original members, each of whom walked into the store and tried on the necklace and talked to the owner of the store, Tom Van Gundy, who decided to give them a deep discount on Jewelia, on one condition. They had to take under their wing a 13th member, his wife Priscilla Van Gundy, who had just lost a sister to cancer and was in need of some focus in life.
A deal was quickly struck and Jewelia went home to be with a group of women, mostly in their 50s and 60s, who “wanted to feel sexy and beautiful and share friendships, and to be there to share good times and bad times,” Osborn said.
There was also another link among the women. Each of them had some passion, some charity or cause they wished to promote. That is why the women and Jewelia are traveling throughout California, with members speaking on behalf of various good causes and raising cash to further those causes.
Each member of the sisterhood gets to wear the necklace for four weeks and then the group will get together to pass Jewelia on to another member.
“There are only two rules,” Osborn said. “Each woman has to wear the necklace if she goes to Paris and each member has to wear Jewelia at least once while making love.”
The members of the Thirteen Women of Jewelia are Roz McGrath, Dana Murdock, Mary Tosney, Maggie Hood, Mary Osborn, Priscilla Van Gundy, Patty Channer, Dale Meugenburg, Roz Warner, Jonelle McClain, Nancy Huff, Mary Karrh and Tina Osborn, who is no relation to Mary Osborn.
Jewelia was named after one of the group’s favorite people, the late French Chef, Julia Child.