Dumbfounded

2007: This Harry Winston story is brilliant.

(via International Diamond Annual, Vol.1, 1971) A N Wilson writes:

There is one story Harry Winston enjoys telling more than others, because he is a great believer in fate.

It concerns the Hope Diamond, which has a fascinating history and has acquired notoriety for bringing bad luck to its private owners. Harry Winston defied the Hope Diamond legend and trusted his own fate by buying the diamond from the estate of the late Mrs Evelyn McLean for one million dollars. This was in 1947.

Let Harry tell his story here:
“A little later I was in Lisbon with my wife, Edna. As our two sons were still quite young, Edna and I decided to return home on separate planes, as people with children often do. So Edna took off for New York on schedule on the Friday evening and I booked to follow the next day.

“Edna’s plane landed at Santa Maria, in the Azores for the usual refueling. Some slight engine trouble was discovered and there was a delay of some hours. The passengers chatted amongst themselves and it soon got around the lounge that Mrs Harry Winston was a passenger. One man refused to continue the journey and asked to be booked on the next plane.

“On my way to the airport the next evening I was handed a cablegram from Edna announcing her safe arrival. I put it in my pocket. On the plane I took a sedative and had a pleasant nap, with nobody in the adjoining seat to disturb me. On reboarding the plane at Santa Maria, after refueling , I found a very talkative man in the seat next to me. He told me how he had escaped from traveling on the same plane as the wife of the owner of Hope Diamond.

“I’m not superstitious, he claimed, ‘but why should I tempt fate? I decided to change planes and here I am. Besides, there was engine trouble on that plane.’

“He talked and talked for quite a time but eventually grew quite enough for me to begin to drop off to sleep again. Then his voice broke through to me: ‘I wonder if that plane arrived safely.’

“I could not resist it. I fished the cable out of my pocket and passed it across to him to read. The he gazed dumbly at me. He never opened his mouth again that night. I slept well.”