Excuse the iPhone mixed with bad lighting photos. If you can get past it, I know it’s hard, fix your eyes on this one-of-a-kind dress worn by the beautiful Joanie. It was the perfect dress for the pre-wedding festivities. But get this, the dress is over 30 years old!

Thankfully, the woman behind it was in the room. I’ll never forget Grandma. Marie. A stylish 80-something cross country RV-er and full of life. She was most approachable and full of delightful stories about her life including her outings with her husband, also present. She’d made this dress for a work party she attended with him. We laughed and exchanged jokes about our husbands, the irony of sitting so close to the sweets, and how we both really wanted to stop eating the homemade turtles but couldn’t muster up the self-control.

My life? Stale toast in comparison to hers. Even on the dance floor she and her man out-shined the 20-somethings. I fell in love with her, and hope to leave an impression on others as she has on me. And to believe it all started with a dress…

What will you pass on?