Chapter 3 - LILY DIDN’T WANT A NEW DRESS
The ruined dress stayed in the box for almost a month.
I couldn’t throw it away.
Couldn’t repair it.
Couldn’t look at it for too long.
Then Lily found me holding it one afternoon.
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you going to fix it?”
I looked down.
“I can try.”
She sat beside me.
“Do you want me to?”
She touched one loose crochet row.
Then shook her head.
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because that was my flower girl dress.”
“Yes.”
“And I was already the flower girl.”
I smiled.
“You were.”
“So I don’t need it again.”
Children are sometimes much better at understanding endings than adults.
I asked:
“What should we do with it?”
Lily thought.
Then:
“Can we use some of it for something else?”
That became our project.
Not repair.
Transformation.
I salvaged several undamaged crochet flowers.
Lily chose three.
We sewed them onto the corner of a small quilt for her room.
The dress stopped being an object Ida destroyed.
Part of it became something Lily chose.
May you like
That distinction mattered.
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