She made it into the dress.
She made it into the way my mother now says “Don’t save that” whenever I hesitate to let Lily touch something old.
And she made it into one habit I am trying very hard to break.
Saving things for someday.
The cream dress has already been stained.
Strawberry, I think.
The yellow dress I wore has a tiny tear near the waist because Lily wore it for family photographs this spring and caught it on a branch.
For about five seconds, I was devastated.
Then I heard Grandma:
Clothes are meant to wrinkle.
Children are meant to stain things.
So I repaired it.
Badly.
But well enough.
The sewing box lives in my house now.
Lily is too young to understand any of this yet.
One day she will.
I’ll show her the photograph of her great-great-grandmother at 101, sitting under an apple tree with a birthday girl on her lap.
