My Mother’s Dresses

 

 My mother had many kinds of jobs. Giving lectures was one. She had many topics such as feminism, international corporations, aging society, and so on. She was famous. She gave lectures all over Japan. Sometimes she was on TV.

 My mother said the contents of the lectures were extremely important to a speaker. But the attire is also important. She said, “I can’t wear the same dress at the same place.”

 So she had many dresses. All of them were original-designed, hand-made-to-orders. There was no ready-made product. One of my mother’s friends was a dressmaker. I heard she worked very economically for my mother.

 My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She lost her lecture jobs. We had many dresses in our house.

 I didn’t know what to do with those dresses.

 I decided to give the dresses to someone. I started bringing them to a laundry shop because they were extremely dusty.

 I could not bring them all at once. I brought some of them every week to the laundry shop. It took about half a year.

 One day, a clerk of the laundry shop cautiously asked me, “Don’t take this wrong. But may I ask you your occupation?”

 She suspected me! Yes! I was a suspicious customer: a middle-aged man bringing many custom-made dresses for a lady every week. It must be very unnatural.

 I told the story about my mother. The clerk listened with tears in her eyes.

 My mother had a successful life. I don’t want to be successful like her. But I want just one original-designed hand-made-to-order suit.

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