As a result, I've learned to tackle Christmas and Birthday Season - the latter being the thirty-day run between the period before I must post my parcel to elder daughter in Hades to Mother's Day - in manageable purchasing bursts, none more than ninety minutes.
I found younger daughter's birthday approaching rapidly, but despite my careful planning and plotting, had failed to find an item of pretty clothing to join the gifts of movies, music, and makeup. Usually, I wander into a likely shop and something will call to me. Although I'd heard elder daughter's name floating out at me in April, nothing whispered about younger daughter.
With two days to go, I wandered into a shop in Cook Street, mentioned the specifications to the employee there - something feminine for a petite stature with a generous bosom, as younger daughter takes after one of her paternal great-grandmothers. (She certainly didn't get it from my side of the family...)
I spotted it a split second before the clerk did, a simple sundress, reminiscent of the late Fifties, early Sixties. Flower print, modest boat neck, slightly pleated skirt, and defined waist. Sort of Sandra Dee without the sly overtones.
She showed me several others, but I kept saying, "That one's calling me."
I presented it to younger daughter on her birthday, and she wore it the very next day for her part in a fundraising concert.
It was like magic. The dress, which fit perfectly, seemed to endow her with extra social grace and confidence. She maintained poise as garden tours strolled past her and planes droned overhead. I was delighted (and careful not to say so) when she excused herself at lunch - a new thing in itself - to reapply her makeup in the washroom instead of at the table.
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