wedding dress..

On the desk beside me is a photograph of my mother in her wedding dress
She's dated it on the back Sep 20 1941


I saw the dress for the first time on Tuesday this week.
It is now Friday.
My mother's dress is made of figured satin.
-I had to ring her to check because I wasn't sure if she was saying finger satin or figure satin
after she said it a few more times on the phone, I got it- figured satin
The dress is kept in a plastic bag on a linen shelf at my mother's unit
It lies underneath sheets and pillowcases
I had no idea she'd kept it
I have no memory of ever seeing it

I carried it into the lounge room and opened the bag onto my knees.
It is the colour of cream
It is covered in lightly embossed flowers
Satin feels slippery on your skin
The sleeves are long with little puffs at the shoulders and two hand stitched press studs at each wrist
The bodice is high necked with a soft v in the middle
My mother wore a strand of pearls on the day she was married
There is a line of ruching gathered under the bust
Covered buttons with rouleau loops go all the way down the back
My mother's sister did up the bottom ones and she fastened the top
It is floor length with a ripply circular train
The dress has yellowy spots on one shoulder and a few marks on the skirt
There are no holes or tears in the dress.


I held the dress up to the light and saw my mother on the other side of the table looking at it
My mother is 92
When she was 23 she wore this dress
She had dark hair with a slight wave and wore a veil that reached the floor
My mother wore silver shoes with a small heel
My mother was 5 foot 7 when she was young

I have the photo beside me, taken on the morning of her wedding
She is standing by the window in a studio in Clifton Hill,
Her dark curly hair is just touching her shoulders
Her face is clear and her eyes are smiling
She is carrying a long bouquet of roses and gardenias
On her arm she is dangling a ribboned horseshoe
The train is spread out like a wave on the floor in front of her
She looks like an Irish princess
My mother loved marrying my father..

just looking..

At the op shop this morning I stood beside a man holding a bundle of books.. Old hardbacks.. The one on top caught my eye because when I glanced down I saw it was titled something like Learning Swedish.  He was middle aged, dark haired and had a moustache as fine as a cat's whiskers. In the seconds that went by I began to picture him opening the book in a room with his Swedish girlfriend  but when I looked down again, I saw it wasn't a language manual but a book about Crafting Softwood. The woman serving flicked through the pile and stacked them by the register.
The large white book at the bottom was an embossed Holy Bible.
"That'll be 4 dollars" she said and he paid her, dropped them in plastic bag and went out the door..