Shutter Sisters

Something Borrowed

By

I didn’t think she needed a veil. It seemed old fashioned. Maybe excessive? When I was in second grade preparing for my First Communion, I remembered shopping with my mother for a pretty white dress to adorn the occassion, settling on a lace bodice with sheer long sleeves and a soft pleated skirt. Feminine, but not frilly. It had to feel like me. “Do you really want a veil?” my mother asked. Yes. Yes, I course I wanted a veil. That was 34 years ago.

So on the day of dress rehearsal for her First Communion in our cozy little Catholic church, my girl snuggled up close to me between instructions to whisper in my ear, “I want a veil.” Just two days before we made a mad dash to the mall to find a new dress because the hefty splint on her broken arm had rendered the delicate borrowed dress with slim sleeves no longer borrow-able from one of our closest family friends. Now I had less than eight shopping hours to fulfill the veil request. Two baseball games would consume at least five of those hours. And let’s just say access to shopping venues offering child-size veils in my small southern town would be… non-existent. Stumped, I unloaded my woes to a friend in the fellowship hall as she waited for her son, clad in a miniature suit and tie to join us.

“Borrow my daughter’s veil!” she insisted. “I still have it from her First Communion eight years ago.” Relieved and grateful, I drove all of ten minutes to my friend’s house to pick up the veil and fulfill my girl’s First Communion fashion statement. Was the veil really necessary? No. Would the day have been as special without the veil? Yes. Was it a memorable site to see my girl adorned in her borrowed veil tread softly down the center of the church toward the alter with a shy grin? Yes, indeed.

I shot this image with my Nikon D3s with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens set at 24mm with f/6.3 aperture setting. ISO was set to 400 and I fired my speedlight. I processed it in Sepia Tone set to .41 intensity to give the image a timeless feel.

Show us something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blue.

Comments

  6. What a beautiful picture and story! I don't have a picture to share but want you to know how much she will cherish this picture. I distinctly remember my first communion. My mother had pasted away a few months before so my grandmother and aunt got my dress and veil, as well as a little purse for me. I remember the veil was very important to have. Great job!

  7. What a lovely post! This should be fun, let me see if I have photos for each category…

    Something old: My parents will kill me for this, but how about laughter shared for more than 35 years?
    http://www.jenniferkrafchik.com/2011/06/still-laughing.html

    Something blue: The gorgeous blue waters of the Portuguese sea during our vacation several years ago:
    http://www.jenniferkrafchik.com/2011/06/travel-photography-salema.html

    Something new: A new set of wooden blocks for a first birthday:
    http://www.jenniferkrafchik.com/2011/06/handmade-wooden-building-blocks.html

    Something borrowed: Old, fabric scraps borrowed from my Mom to sew new toys for my daughter:
    http://www.jenniferkrafchik.com/2011/04/sewing-peanut-the-wee-elephant.html

  10. Thank you for sharing this – being raised atheist in a Protestant country, this made a fascinating read, as well as a touching one.

    This image is my grandmother's pearls, which she gave me when I defended my PhD. I wore them proudly at the celebration dinner, and it made the occasion all the more special.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennifee/5450111869/