I needed a dress for my sister Dawn Breeze’s fabulous Sicilian wedding in September 2005. I found “the one” at Walk This Way in Oak Bluffs, owned by Natasha Taylor. I didn’t have enough money to buy my dream dress outright, so I did a work trade for it.
I loved that dress, and it looked perfect in the wedding. When we came home from our trip, I stowed it in a dry cleaning bag and put it in the back of my mother’s closet.
In the fall of 2006 it was time for my brother Strider Wibel’s wedding. My sister, Summer Knight, didn’t have anything to wear, so I let her borrow the dress. She wore it, and it was perfect once again. I lost track of the dress after that. For years I kept going into my mother’s closet and digging around, always coming up empty-handed.
Jump forward to last week. Aquinnah Witham [Brown] stopped into the [Chicken Alley] Thrift Store and donated a bunch of her fabulous clothing. I was excited by all the lush colors and fabrics in her donation. When I unballed one dress, I was shocked! I knew right away that it was the dress I had been looking for.
I called Aquinnah to find out how it had come into her possession, just to be sure that it was actually the same dress.
She told me she had been given the dress by Donna Carol, and had worn it to Sarka and Charlie Greene’s wedding. Donna and my sister Summer had been very close friends all their lives, and although I don’t know how the dress made it into Donna’s closet, I am sure they made some kind of deal for it. I can’t ask them, because Summer died in 2008 and Donna died just two years ago.
I feel so blessed to have a little piece of my history back, and with it, the karma of two women I love and no longer get to be with.
I have been working at the thrift store for 3½ years, and was just promoted to store manager. In a way, I feel like they are reminding me that I am exactly where I need to be.