Friday June 6th (2014) was a day of errands for me. It turned into a day of collecting dresses. I had been out since early in the morning and probably put 150 miles on my car driving from the far southwest side to meet with Sandy, then on to various stops making a circle around the northwest side until I finally returned home. No stop was short. I was at Sherrie’s when Sy first called. She asked a little about the foundation and had heard about it from Stacie M. (Stacie was one of our first donations). Then she asked if we were going to make shrouds for the littlest ones. “Yes, we are making Little Angel Pockets” I replied. Then she told me a little about her daughter. She said that when her daughter was born, she was too small to wear clothes. All they had to wrap her in was a blanket. Sy said that her daughter’s birthday was the next day and she wanted me to have her wedding gown in honor of her daughter. It gave me goose bumps. I told her that I would be honored. The next morning, I arrived at Sy’s and gave her a card I made for her, along with a bookmark. She shared with me the rest of the story, about how long they tried to get pregnant (nine years) and about how her daughter ended up being born at home at twenty weeks. We talked for over an hour. She is amazing. She showed me her dress and was almost embarrassed about a couple of yellow spots, “don’t worry, I can take care of those, or work around them.” They are gone. Sy and her husband now have another child who is active, playful, and wonderful. She told me later that she usually dreads her daughter’s birthday, but that day she didn’t.
At her request, I am using Sy’s gown to make Little Angel Pockets.