The Year My Uncle Bought Me an Easter Dress

As a child, one of my siblings and I would often stay with my grandmother and uncle in the Ozark region of Missouri. We lived in Illinois and my parents would drop us off on a Saturday and pick us up the following weekend, giving us a whole week to walk in the woods, feed the ducks at the park, swim, fish, and chase the barnyard chickens (I can still hear my grandmother yelling at us to leave the chicken alone). My grandmother was poor, as were we. She and my uncle lived in a three-room house, with no running water, using wood as the only source for cooking and heating the house. Grandma did not even have a television set. We kids did not mind these inconveniences because my uncle had a way of making us forget about them during our stay. My Uncle Perry could not read and could barely count past 10, but he showered us with love, kindness and understanding, and showed us how to have fun without electronics.

Uncle Perry was also a very God-fearing religious person, who went to Church two to three times a week. Neither he nor my grandma knew how to drive, so they either walked everywhere (they lived about one and half miles from town), or relied on neighbors and friends for transportation. My fondest Easter memory is how Uncle Perry walked to town to buy me a new dress for Easter.

When I was about eight years old, my older sister and I were staying with my grandma and uncle over Easter break. When Grandma unpacked our clothes, she realized my mother had forgotten to pack me a dress for Church. A girl had to wear a dress to Church back in those days. Without consulting anyone, my Uncle Perry decided he would buy me a dress. Keep in mind that my uncle had never married, had no children of his own and had never bought a little girls dress before.

When my uncle returned home from his shopping spree and showed me the dress he had bought me for Church and Easter, I was overjoyed. It was a sleeveless, shift-style dress, with red plaid fabric on the bottom, solid red fabric on the top, and two sizes too big. My grandma and sister told him he messed up big time, that it was too big, and I could not wear it. They told him he should have informed them what he was planning so they could have helped, and now it was too late to go back to the store. Nevertheless, I told them I thought it was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen, and that I was going to wear it to Church service. My grandma and sister kept insisting that I could not wear it, but they finally gave in, and I wore it to Church the next day.

When my parents arrived the following weekend, which was Easter weekend, my mother had brought along one of my old dresses to wear to Easter Service. I told her I did not need it because Uncle Perry had bought me a new dress. When my mother saw the dress, my poor uncle was chastised all over again for buying a dress too large for such a little girl. I loved my uncle very much and could tell he felt bad about the dress. However, when my mother tried to talk me out of wearing it, I adamantly refused. I told her and my uncle that it was the most beautiful dress I ever owned and I wanted to wear it. The next day I walked into the church holding my uncle's hand, wearing my new Easter dress. For many Sundays after that, I would insist on wearing my new Easter dress to Church.

I will always cherish this Easter memory, never forgetting the dress or my beloved uncle.