I was running my own little clothing shop in Manchester, and one evening just before closing, a pregnant woman walked in. I was about to shut up shop, but she kept browsing through the dresses. We got chatting, and she told me her husband had walked out on her with two kids already in tow. Times were hardshed had to move out of her rented flat and back in with her parents. As if that wasnt enough, shed just found out she was expecting again. Too late for anything but to go through with it. Nothing fit her anymoreshed outgrown her clothes, as she put it. A strangers story, really. I could tell she was hunting for the cheapest thing, but even that was out of her budget. Exhausted, I thought, *Well, I wont miss one dress*, and handed it to her as a gift. Her face lit upshe was over the moon, thanking me like Id handed her the Crown Jewels. Off she went.
Time passed, and I forgot all about it. Then, one perfectly ordinary day, in walks this woman, smiling at me like were old mates. Im wracking my brain trying to place her when she pulls a little parcel from her modest handbag and says, Remember me? I was pregnant, skint, and you gave me that dress. You told me everything would be alright, that life never throws more at us than we can handle. That supportjust hearing it from someonegot me through. I had the baby. Its just me and the three kids now, but were managing. And I reckon thingsll keep looking up. Thank you. It meant the world. We hugged, wished each other well, and off she went.
I unwrapped the parcel. Inside? A pair of wingsordinary little angel wings. I felt a proper twit. That dress? Id given it mostly to shake off the awkwardness of the moment. And yet, somehow, Id ended up being her angellistening, sympathising, even tossing in a few heartfelt words of encouragement with a free frock.
Funny, isnt it? How little it takes to pull someone out of the gloom. Sometimes all it needs is a kind word, a smile, and maybejust maybea secondhand dress.
