The concept is similar to Ann Brashares’ coming-of-age novel and later movie, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, in which four teenage friends of different shapes and sizes share a pair of pants which keeps them close as they spend a summer apart.
But in this part of the world, the pants have been replaced with a diamond cross necklace, which has a more important job, and has just found its latest home - with a mum slowly losing a second little girl to a terminal inherited condition.
It started in 2007, when Pukekohe parents Mike and Jackie Felton were trying to raise more than $25,000 to take their daughter Megan to Germany for stem cell treatment. Megan, now aged 18, has cerebral palsy following medical misadventure during her birth.
After their story received national media attention, a letter arrived from a South Island artist, Mike Felton says.
"It said, ‘I’ve got no money, is this ok?’ and when I opened it up it was this whacking big diamond. Yeah, this diamond just rolled up in a screwed-up bag in the post."
He took the gemstone to Stonz Jewellers in Pukekohe to be valued, and the owner - recognising the family’s story from the news - offered to set it in a cross for free.
The piece was then listed on Trade Me, but bids were falling short of the roughly $6500 still needed to get to Germany - until someone in Wellington simply asked, "How much do you need to make the trip a reality?"
"It was pretty bizarre. They basically said, ‘I don’t need it, mate - good luck’ and that was the end of it. They [shut down] their Trade Me account and disappeared. I couldn’t even find them to thank them."
Re-selling the cross would be "greedy", so he and his wife decided that when the time felt right they would give it to another family in need.
It was more than a decade later when Pukekohe business owner Sharon England - a long-time friend of the couple who helped lead the fundraising for Megan’s stem cell treatment - found out her grandson Eli had a brain tumour.
The 6-year-old had several surgeries and started radiation, with doctors giving him a life expectancy of two years, England says.
"When they heard about Eli, Mike and Jackie arrived with the cross and gifted it to us to sell, so that we could create those memories," England said.
"Sadly, despite everything the doctors tried for Eli, he lost his battle after only a few months … which is why we never got to do what we planned with the cross."
She offered it back to the Feltons, but they had a different idea, England says.
"They said it was now mine to pay forward when I saw a need … Mike said, ‘When you feel it’s the right one, then you pass it on’."
"I watched a lot of the Go Fund Me, Givealittle type pages and nothing really touched or reached out to me like the story of Grace," England said.
"So I contacted Mike and said, ‘What do you think of this?’
"He said, ‘It’s your call, but I fully support you on this one’."
The cross was handed over in a sweet roadside moment last month.
"She introduced me to Grace and we had a little chat and a hug, and both of us had a bit of a tear."
The cross is now Jessop’s to use however she wants, England says.
"If they want to get a whole lot of family portraits done, that’s fine. If they want to have a holiday and make memories, that’s fine. If they want to do a memory garden, that’s fine.
"It’s whatever they want."
The inscription on the back of the pendant reads Grace of Love.
"Like it was meant to be", says Jessop, who also has an 8-year-old son, Cody.
Jessop isn’t sure how she wants to use the necklace yet. For now, she’s put the cross in a safe deposit box in Auckland.
Twenty-three-month-old Grace’s health is deteriorating faster than that of Anita. She’s having seizures, is suffering repeated viral infections and can no longer sit, crawl or grasp.
"She can’t pick up her food and self-feed, which she loved to do … and she’s eating less. I’m quite worried about that because she might need to go on to a feeding tube next year.
"It feels like we have less time than with Anita, which is quite hard … and [her care] is full on, but we’re managing."
PCH6 alters brain functions and typically manifests in the prenatal period. It’s inherited when the mutation gene is passed on from both parents.
Now she’s considering whether to hold on to the cross, so she can one day pass it on to another family in need, or sell it to pay for things Grace would enjoy - like taking her animal-loving daughter to zoos around the country, and making memories with Cody.
Whatever the future holds, the unexpected act of generosity has already given her family the best gift they could imagine - a reminder that they’re not alone, Jessop says.
"It’s overwhelming. It’s like, wow, someone cares about us, you know?"
To support Grace Jessop and her family, go here: Family struck twice with extremely rare fatal condition - Givealittle
