It was Easter Sunday morning at 7:30 am, and the family was getting ready to get out the door to Mass. Everyone was pulling tags off sweaters and scraping stickers from the bottoms of new shoes. Eleven-year-old Maureen was searching for white tights, going from room to room asking her older sisters if she might borrow a pair. No one seemed to have any, and I regretting not remembering to buy new ones for her.
Then, suddenly, I had a thought.
"Maureen, go to my bottom drawer and reach all the way to the back. You will find a beautiful pair of white lace tights, and you're welcome to borrow them."
Twenty-two years and two days before Easter Sunday was the last time I wore them, yet, for some reason, I have always kept them in my drawer and never packed away out of reach. Those tights have survived four moves and countless decluttering sprees. This Lent alone, I filled forty bags of clothes to give to charity, yet the pretty lace tights passed through my hands, before being lovingly folded and put right back in the drawer.
Maureen was overwhelmed to be granted the use of this family heirloom.
"Please make sure you do not run around in them without shoes," I warned her.
"I won't," she promised, smiling.
True to her word, she returned them later as snowy white as ever. Well, just about as snowy white--and with an Easter memory attached.If I could do it all over again, I would have skipped the silly "garter ceremony" so popular in 1990s weddings. As you can see, ours was as respectable as possible.
Still, I am grateful for that ceremony for one reason--without it, I would have no photo of those lacey tights from the big day.
How is it possible my sixth child is already big enough to wear them?
Just Beautiful...Yes you made me Tear-Up...Love You Alice
Posted by: Therese Stimpfel | April 16, 2015 at 02:07 PM
So beautiful... Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Sr. Colleen Clair, FMA | April 16, 2015 at 03:50 PM