My mother works in a thrift store in her spare time. It’s a teeny tiny place, about 10 feet square with a small room in the back piled high with trash bags full of donations.
Last week a gentleman began bringing in some donations from a house clearance. He told my mother and the manager of the store that the occupant had died and they were clearing out the closets. They realised they recognised the name of the family, which was well known the area. George Chetwynd defeated future British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1945 to become Member of Parliament for the town. He died in 1982 and the house clearance was the result of the recent death of his widow, Lady Chetwynd.
A few bags of clothes arrived the first day. A few more bags arrived the second day and the bags kept coming and coming. The store manager soon realised it was more clothes than the store could hold, and definitely more than the neighbors were likely to buy. She decided to donate some of the clothes to the convalescent home where my Grandma lives. Maybe they could make good use of them.
You learn a lot about a person by looking in their closet. Imelda Marcos had lots of shoes. Lady Chetwynd apparently had bags and bags of…….underwear! Since most of them were still in the store plastic, apparently yet-to-be-used, my mother took them to the convalescent home. The nurses there seemed very grateful. A few days later, she went back to the home and checked on the progress of the underwear. It fit Grandma and several of her friends. Great! (My sister joked that the nurses were probably all wearing it too).
Grandma was born in our small town and lived there all her life. Had she still been compos mentis, she would’ve recognised the name Chetwynd, but she’s had Altzheimer’s disease for many years and has no idea what year it is and whether the Prime Minister is Gordon Brown, Margaret Thatcher or even Harold Macmillan. But as she left the convalescent home that day, my mother though about how proud her mother would be, if only she knew that from now on, she was wearing Lady Chetwynd’s knickers.
Philomena
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