Off The Record
My Mom Made Me A Dress Before She Died – I Couldn’t Believe What Someone Did To It Right Before My Wedding
On the most significant day of my life, I just wanted to respect my mother. Instead, just minutes before I was to go down the aisle, I was confronted with a betrayal that almost broke me.
At the age of 26, I would have laughed if you had told me that I would be writing my life’s narrative with trembling hands. However, the memory of what transpired on my wedding day still makes me feel uncomfortable.
With shaky hands, I fixed the veil on my head and gazed at my reflection. A warning drum beat in my chest. The gentle murmur of the wind outside the window was the only sound in the bridal room. My mother’s last present, my dress, hung by the window and glowed softly, like if it had a soul of its own.
Remembering the day she unwrapped the cloth, I grinned as I reached for the edge of the silk bodice. I remember that moment as if it were a prayer. She was exhausted already. The physicians no longer spoke of optimism, and the cancer had returned with a vengeance.
However, my mother did not cry or blink. “I guess I’ll have to work faster,” she responded.
Not until a few days later, when I discovered her sewing table covered in ivory fabric, lace trim, and a tiny bag of pearls, did I finally comprehend. Then she smiled at me, her face pallid, her body weak, but her soul unflinching.
As she threaded her needle with unsteady hands, she informed me, “I’m making you something no one can ever take away,”
Saying, “Mom… you need to rest,” I put my hand on hers.
“I’ll rest when my girl walks down the aisle.”
I found out she was making my wedding dress that way. Ella, my mother, was everything to me. In addition to being my mother, she was also my best friend, my person, and my role model. Since we couldn’t afford store-bought gowns when I was a child, mother would stay up late sewing dresses for me out of leftover fabric.
Although she worked as a seamstress, she had a golden heart and was an artist. Her stitches were filled with love, tenderness, and accuracy.
She insisted on sewing even on days when she could not raise her head. From her window-facing hospital bed, she labored feverishly and silently. Layers of silk, exquisite lace, and beads that glistened like morning dew were added to the wedding gown as it grew larger every day.
Three days prior to her death, she completed the dress. I recall it shimmering as if it were alive as I held it up to the sun. Her slender fingertips brushed the hem as I held it next to her bed.
“Now I can go,” she said softly as she touched the cloth.
She drifted away that night.
I carefully folded the dress after the burial, put it in a garment bag, and concealed it in my closet. I was unable to look at it. Her lotion’s lavender aroma was still stuck to the sleeves. My breath would catch every time I caught it, forcing me to leave.
However, I promised myself that I would wear that dress when I got married, regardless of the time or person. Not something brand-new or prefabricated. I swore I would go down the aisle in that outfit.
My dad got married again a year after she died.
Cheryl was her name.
I still find it incomprehensible that my kind, bereaved father would have a relationship with someone like her. Cheryl came like a blast of icy air, all poison and politeness, all high heels and flawless smiles. In public, she portrayed herself as nice, but in private, she was as piercing as glass.
She once remarked, “You’re sweet,” and patted my arm. “You simply lack your mother’s grace. However, I have no doubt that you will finally arrive.”
At the age of 18, I was unsure of how to defend myself without feeling guilty. So I remained silent. I suppressed it.
I soon discovered that my stepmother had a gift for nastiness that was passed off as “concern.”
Despite my stomach turning, I smiled when Dad revealed they were getting engaged. Even though I didn’t trust the woman who was making him happy, I told myself that I wanted him to be happy and that if Cheryl made him laugh again, I would find a way to live with it.
I eventually left home, enrolled in college, and only visited over the holidays. As the years went by, Dad and I became less close. His wife constantly managed to put herself in between Dad and me, even though she was bearable as long as I didn’t live under her roof.
Every time he was unable to spend time with me alone or have a lengthy phone conversation, there was an explanation. However, Dad remained content, and I had no intention of dampening his spirits.
Then I got to know Luke.
Cheryl wasn’t anything compared to my guy. He made me feel protected in a manner I hadn’t felt in years, was quiet in a world full of chaos, and wasn’t ostentatious or loud. I was drawn to the patient, modest strength he possessed.
Before he finally proposed, we had been dating for five years, and I accepted with tears in my eyes.
When I told Dad, he started crying. Cheryl stated bluntly, “That’s… fast, isn’t it?” as she raised her head from her phone.
I blinked. “It’s been five years.”
Her smile was tight-lipped. “Obviously. All I wanted to say was that things change quickly.”
I was wise enough not to dispute. Cheryl was silent and surgical in her punches, the kind that made you wonder why you were doing them. The kind that lingered in your mind long after the discussion was over.
My life was consumed for months by wedding preparations. Cake samples, music selections, and floral selections were all available. However, I never gave wearing anything other than the outfit my mother had sewn me any thought.
It was timeless and fit flawlessly, as if it had been designed specifically for that occasion. I felt closer to her each time I stroked the fabric.
The week before the wedding, Cheryl made the abrupt decision to start being “helpful.”
She began arriving early, contributing ideas that no one requested, and interjecting herself into all vendor meetings. I made an effort to maintain the peace, but it felt strange.
Maddy remarked, “She’s trying to wedge herself in,” one evening while we were packing guest bags. Maddy had no filter and had been my best friend since kindergarten.
“She’s just… being Cheryl,” I said, worn out.
Then, one afternoon, she unexpectedly showed up at my fitting and stalked around the outfit.
She remarked, “This one looks… vintage,” “Are you certain you don’t want something fresh and stylish?” You may buy a genuine one.
I laughed off her remark as I turned to face her. It’s sentimental. My mother made it.
After a moment of frozen expression, she grinned. “Oh, I see. That clothing once more.”
I felt uneasy with her tone, but I dismissed it because I didn’t think she would attempt to undermine me.
I was completely mistaken.
Despite the serene and sunny morning of the wedding, I woke up trembling with anxiety. I had stayed at home in order to be near the wedding location. I went downstairs to find Dad humming while preparing coffee.
Like every movie’s father of the bride, he exuded pride and emotion. Naturally, my stepmother was tinkering with her cosmetics. Before heading to the wedding location with Dad and Cheryl, I went to take a bath.
There, with Maddy at my side, I got ready.
Maddy had gathered the garment from the seamstress, and it hung in the suite, the sunlight shining through it like a gift. While I was trying to eat something, my best friend fluffed it.
She said, “You ready?”
I grinned. “As I’ll ever be.”
The florist then contacted to report that the boutonnières were mixed up. To take care of it, I went outside. I was gone for little more than ten minutes.
Maddy’s face was quite pale when I returned! She was so completely white!
“Lila,” she said in a whisper.
I followed her eyes.
The dress that was stitched with my mother’s final breath was on the ground, ripped, cut, and discolored!
I was having trouble breathing. I knelt down and grabbed it up with trembling hands. The needlework was torn. The bodice and fabric were ragged, as if they had been assaulted. There were beads all over the place, like little broken bones!
“No… no no no…”
I resisted Maddy’s attempt to grab me, holding onto the torn cloth instead. She cried out, “Oh my God, who would do this?!”
“These are deliberate scissor cuts,” I replied. “This wasn’t an accident.”
Slowly, she nodded. “I apologize, Li. While you were on the phone, I went outside to use the restroom, but—”
Without waiting to hear what further she had to say, I suddenly straightened up.
Still wearing my slip, I ran into the hallway. The guests pivoted. Unaware of the explosion brewing inside of me, music played in the distance.
She was there!
Cheryl was laughing and drinking champagne as she stood by the catering table.
Before I hurried out, I had observed that her perfume, the pricey rose aroma she wore, was still slightly present in my wedding suite.
“You,” I snarled.
She pivoted. “Lila, darling, what’s wrong?”
“You did this!” I shouted. “You destroyed my mother’s dress!”
For a brief moment, her face changed before the phony worry took over. “I beg your pardon?”
“You cut it! The last thing Mom gave me was ruined by you.”
“Cheryl let out a sigh like if I were a whiny kid. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been harmed if you hadn’t left it sitting about. It’s only a dress, so relax.”
“It’s not just a dress!” I let out a yell. “She used her dying hands to make it! It was her final present to me.”
While some guests were capturing the scene with their phones out, others were just staring. Luke came running over.
My stepmother smirked, looking smug and frigid. “Well, perhaps it’s time to move on from the past. You can now go buy a genuine gown.”
Maddy, who had followed me out of the suite, stopped me as I went toward her! The music paused, the guests began murmuring, and suddenly my dad showed up, his face white as he absorbed the situation.
He yelled, “What’s going on?!”
“Your wife,” spit out. “She destroyed Mom’s dress!”
Mock fear enlarged Cheryl’s eyes. “That charge is absurd! I would never—”
Then Maddy took the lead. “Earlier, I was attempting to inform you that I witnessed her carrying scissors out of the suite. Before I went to the bathroom, she entered while you were out.” “I wanted to wish you luck,” she said. Before you brought up the dress’s scissor cuts, I had never given it any thought.
Everything came to a halt.
Dad’s bewilderment gave way to fear. He said, “Is that true?”
Cheryl paused after opening her mouth. “I… I was just trying to help.”
He exclaimed, “Help with what?!” “What were you doing with scissors?!”
Cheryl’s mask broke for the first time. She lost her temper. “That woman is treated like a saint by both of you! I’ve had enough of being second-best. I assumed she would finally move on once the outfit was gone.”
The room’s air departed.
Dad’s voice trailed off. “Get out.”
“What?”
“I heard you. Leave now! This is not a place for you. And I want you out of my house when I get home!”
When two of the groomsmen, his friends, intervened, Dad turned away from her attempt to argue.
Before she vanished out the side doors, the groomsmen escorted her out of the venue after Cheryl tripped while attempting to grab her belongings and knocked over a champagne tower.
I was still.
Dad gently put his hand on my shoulder and murmured, “Sweetheart,” “I really apologize. I should never have allowed her into our life.”
I was unable to talk. My throat ached from suppressing tears.
Maddy then grabbed my arm. “Li, we can fix it.”
“It’s ruined.”
Then she said something that will always stick in my memory.
“No. The stitches don’t represent your mother’s affection. You possess it. We’ll work things out.”
So we did.
We repaired the outfit with fashion tape, pins, thread, and sheer willpower. Even though the bodice was uneven and one sleeve was missing, it seemed like new when I stood at the end of the aisle and the sun shone on it!
With tears in his eyes, Dad gripped my arm.
He murmured to me, “She’d be so proud,” as he led me down the aisle.
And I promise that I could practically feel Mom there at that precise moment—warm, dependable, and grinning.
Something lifted as I moved in Luke’s direction. It softened, but the ache did not go away. Like the robe, I carried it—damaged, repaired, treasured.
The words “you look like magic,” Luke muttered.
“That’s what Mom called it.”
After exchanging vows, we danced beneath the stars.
I was shown a picture by Maddy later that evening.
“She attempted to enter the reception covertly. Security apprehended her.”
My eyes got big.
“She fell into the fountain after tripping over a broken heel on the cobblestone driveway! Complete splash. Her makeup, clothing, and hair were all wrecked.”
I started laughing. The moment was just right for Karma!
Dad filed for a divorce after the wedding. Cheryl received nothing. The prenuptial agreement that Mom insisted on years ago still stands.
The clothing was refurbished for me. After several months, I finally got it framed, and it now hangs in my living room above my fireplace. If you look closely, the small scars are still visible.
However, I adore them.
They serve as a reminder that true love is not brittle. Even the ripped pieces are held together by this thread.
And that cannot ever be taken away.
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