This is one of those outfits I really go through spurts of wearing all the time and then not putting on again for ages- because it is also one of those outfits with memories attached (here's another). Do you ever do that- associate a memory with an object, food or outfit? 

Back when my grandmother was ill for the last time, I'd go to the hospital everyday to visit her. Before the rest of this story, you must understand- my grandmother had always been very particular about appearances. In childhood we always had to clean the house down extra well before Grandma came to visit and get haircuts. So, it definitely meant something that she turned in her hospital bed, mid-conversation, to say how much she liked this outfit. Nothing big; in fact, it was one of the most trivial and everyday place things she had said in weeks.But it struck me, as we waited together for the pastor to show up so she could have one of those one-last kind of conversations, that she said this as if things were normal, for her and for us. That it was an everyday visit like we had been having for years, and we could have been in her sitting room instead where we were. 

Of course, she would have liked this outfit- the belt and necklace were originally hers. But, while it wasn't like she never complimented me or my outfits, it lifted my mood that day.  Not because of what the words said, or what she meant. But it made my grandmother smile, so it makes me smile now to wear it again.