The Wedding Dress

I made my first visit to the Abbott's new house today. While I was there Leah asked me if I'd like to see a little of what they've managed to salvage from their previous home. She opened the garage door, and I quickly understood why the items from their former life weren't inside the house. Collectively they smelled too much like smoke to make it any further than the garage.

Leah pointed out various items here and there, but when she mentioned her wedding dress from her first marriage I couldn't resist the temptation to see it. Leah obliged and began to unwrap the packaging where the dress had been stored for years. As she did she couldn't help talking about the memories surrounding the dress, describing how her mother and sister had made it for her from several different patterns in order to get the dress precisely right.

This is what she found as she opened the box.

 

As a whole the dress is still intact, but parts of the thick satin fabric have been scorched beyond repair.

 

This is the veil she wore which laid out several feet to match the length of the train on the dress (six feet I think Leah said).

 

It was a bit emotional to dig through the box discovering the damage for the first time, and I worried that maybe it had been too soon to ask to see the contents of the box. It only reminded Leah that what she was holding in her hands was all that she had left from that occasion, as pictures from the event had burned with the house. "I wanted my sons to have proof of that marriage to their father." She was pretty discouraged.

But then she saw the framed wedding announcement. It was still wet, but should hopefully dry out without too much damage. A small consolation, yes. But it was something concrete that proves that marriage happened, and for now any consolation is being seen as a blessing!