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My Sister Told 200 Guests the Wedding Dress Came From Paris—I Made It, and I Signed It Inside — Transcript

by Shadow Revenge · 2,401 words · 321 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00At my niece's wedding, my sister stood
0:02up in front of 200 guests, put her hand
0:04on her heart, and said, "That dress came
0:07all the way from Paris. $12,000.
0:10Nothing but the best for my daughter."
0:12Everyone gasped. Then she looked across
0:15the room at me, sitting at the table by
0:17the kitchen door, and she gave me a tiny
0:19warning shake of her head. I smiled and
0:22said nothing. I had made that dress.
0:24Every bead, every seam, 11 months of
0:27work at my little table above a dry
0:29cleaners, and my sister had forgotten
0:31one thing. In our family, a dress maker
0:34always signs her work. On the inside of
0:37the hem, where nobody ever looks. Before
0:39I tell you what happened when the bride
0:41lifted that hem. If you love stories
0:43where the quiet one finally gets her
0:45due, please subscribe to Shadow Revenge.
0:48It really helps me keep sharing these
0:50stories. Now, let me tell you about me
0:53and my sister. My name is Ruth. I am 58
0:56years old. I'm a seamstress. I have a
0:59tiny alterations shop on the second
1:01floor above Kim's dry cleaning with one
1:04window, two sewing machines, and a very
1:07old radio. I hem pants. I take in
1:10waistlines. I let out waistlines more
1:13often, and I never say a word about it.
1:15People trust me with their secrets, one
1:18inch at a time. My mother taught me to
1:20sew when I was six. She was a
1:22seamstress, too, in a dress factory in
1:24New Jersey. And at night, she made
1:26wedding gowns for the girls in our
1:28neighborhood. They paid her what they
1:30could. Sometimes that was $20. Sometimes
1:33it was a chicken. My mother had one
1:35rule. When a dress was finished, before
1:38she handed it over, she turned up the
1:40inside of the hem and stitched a tiny
1:42line in pale blue thread. It said who
1:45the dress was for and who made it with
1:47love. Nobody ever saw it. She said,
1:50"Ruthie, a dress holds a woman up on the
1:52most important day of her life. The
1:55least you can do is sign your name to
1:57the job." I have a younger sister. Her
1:59name is Diane. Diane did not learn to
2:02sew. Diane learned to leave. At 18, she
2:05moved to the city and changed how she
2:07talked. At 24, she married a very nice
2:10man named Paul, who owns a chain of tire
2:12stores. Today, she lives in a big white
2:15house with columns. She has a personal
2:17trainer and a woman who does her
2:19eyebrows. When people ask her where she
2:21grew up, she says, "Oh, back east." For
2:24most of my life, Diane has introduced me
2:27to her friends the same way. This is my
2:29sister, Ruth. She does hems. But there
2:32was one good thing about Diane's big
2:34white house, and that was her daughter.
2:36Chloe was born when I was 32. I never
2:39had children of my own. I was married
2:41for a few years, a long time ago, and it
2:44didn't take. So when Khloe came along,
2:46something in me just opened up. Diane
2:49was busy with her committees. So from
2:51the time Khloe was five, she spent every
2:53Saturday above the dry cleaners with me.
2:56She sat on a stool and sorted my buttons
2:58by color. At 9, she sewed her first
3:01crooked pillow. At 12, she made a skirt
3:03that fell apart in the wash, and we
3:05laughed until we cried. She called me
3:07Aunt Ruthie. She still does. and I
3:10taught her everything my mother taught
3:12me, including the little blue line. She
3:14used to turn up the hems of the dresses
3:16hanging in my shop just to read them.
3:19She said it was like finding a secret.
3:21Last year, Chloe got engaged. She's 26
3:25now, a kindergarten teacher, and she's
3:27marrying a sweet, goofy young man named
3:30Sam, who cries at dog food commercials.
3:333 days after the engagement, Kloe
3:35climbed the stairs to my shop with a bag
3:37of donuts. She sat down on her old stool
3:40and she said, "Aunt Ruthie, will you
3:42make my dress? I don't want a store
3:44dress. I want a dress from you." I had
3:47to go stand by the window for a minute
3:49so she wouldn't see my face. Then my
3:51phone rang. It was Diane. She said,
3:54"Chloe told me about this dress idea." I
3:56said, "I'd be honored, Diane." There was
3:59a pause. Then she said, "Well, it's
4:01sweet of you and it will certainly save
4:03some money." Paul was prepared to spend
4:06$12,000 on a designer gown, but I can't
4:09have people knowing it's homemade. Ruth,
4:11these are important people. So, here's
4:14what we'll say. We'll say it came from a
4:16designer. You understand? And I assume
4:19you're not expecting to be paid. It's
4:21family. I want you to know that I said
4:23yes. I'd have said yes to anything. I
4:26wasn't making that dress for Diane. It
4:28took me 11 months. Chloe wanted
4:31something simple and timeless with long
4:33lace sleeves and a neckline like an old
4:35photograph. I found the lace in a little
4:38shop in Brooklyn and I paid for it
4:40myself. I sewed every bead by hand. I
4:43worked on it after my shop closed from 7
4:46until midnight with the old radio on
4:48low. Chloe came for fittings every other
4:51Saturday. She'd stand on my little
4:53wooden box in the middle of the room and
4:55she'd look at herself in my cracked
4:57mirror and she'd start crying before I'd
4:59even got the pins out. The night I
5:01finished it, I sat alone in the shop. I
5:04turned up the inside of the hem and in
5:06pale blue thread, the same spool of
5:08thread my mother had used, I stitched
5:10for Chloe from Your Aunt Ruthie with all
5:12my love. Then I bit the thread, turned
5:15off the radio, and went home. Two weeks
5:17before the wedding, the invitations and
5:19seating cards came out. I wasn't in the
5:22wedding party. I wasn't at the family
5:24table. My card said table 19, and I
5:27looked it up on the chart at the venue.
5:29It was the table by the swinging kitchen
5:32door. I was seated with the DJ's
5:34assistant and Paul's elderly uncle, who
5:37was deaf in both ears and very happy
5:39about it. Chloe called me furious. She
5:42said, "Aunt Ruthie, I didn't do this.
5:44Mom did the chart. I'm going to fix it.
5:47I said, "Sweetheart, don't you dare. You
5:50have enough to think about. All I want
5:52is to see you walk down that aisle." And
5:54there was one more thing I found out a
5:56week before the wedding. I was dropping
5:58off some altered jackets at Paul's
6:00office, and Paul came out to say hello.
6:03He's a gentle, tired man, and he's
6:06always been kind to me. He said, "Ruth,
6:08you must be excited." Diane tells me the
6:11dress is finally here from Paris.
6:13$12,000.
6:14I told her, "For my little girl, it's
6:17worth every cent." I wrote her the check
6:19back in the spring. I stood there
6:21holding those jackets. I said, "That's
6:23wonderful, Paul." And I went back to my
6:25shop and I sat down and I thought about
6:28that for a long time. $12,000.
6:31My sister had taken $12,000 from her own
6:34husband for a dress I was making for
6:37free. The wedding was in June at a
6:39beautiful old country club with white
6:41roses on every table. Chloe walked down
6:44the aisle on Paul's arm, and I'm not
6:46ashamed to say that I sobbed. That dress
6:49moved like water. Sam took one look at
6:51her and burst into tears, and so did
6:53half the room. After the ceremony, we
6:56all went into the ballroom. I found
6:58table 19. Every time a waiter came
7:01through the kitchen door, it bumped my
7:03chair. Paul's uncle patted my hand and
7:05yelled, "Nice wedding." Then it was time
7:08for the toasts. Diane stood up in a
7:10silver gown and took the microphone. She
7:13talked about what a beautiful day it
7:14was. She thanked the florist and the
7:16band. And then a woman at the next
7:19table, a very elegant lady named Mrs.
7:21Laurent, called out, "Diane, you have to
7:24tell us about that dress. I've been in
7:26bridal fashion for 30 years, and I have
7:29never seen handwork like that." Who made
7:31it? Mrs. Laurent, it turned out, was the
7:34editor of a bridal magazine and a friend
7:37of one of Paul's business partners.
7:39Dian's face lit up. She put her hand on
7:42her heart. She said, "That dress came
7:44all the way from Paris. A very exclusive
7:47Adelier. $12,000.
7:49Nothing but the best for my daughter."
7:51Everyone gasped. Then she looked across
7:54the room right at me and she gave me a
7:56tiny shake of her head. I smiled and I
7:59took a sip of my water. I wasn't going
8:01to say a word. I had promised and it was
8:04Khloe's day, but Khloe had heard her. I
8:07watched my niece set down her glass very
8:09slowly. She looked at her mother. She
8:11looked across the whole ballroom, passed
8:14all those white roses to the table by
8:16the kitchen door. And then she stood up
8:18in her beautiful dress and she walked
8:20over to the microphone and she held out
8:22her hand. And my sister gave it to her
8:25smiling because she thought she was
8:27about to be thanked. Chloe said, "Mrs.
8:29Laurent, you asked who made my dress.
8:32Would you come here for a second?
8:33There's something you might like to
8:35see." Mrs. Florence stood up looking
8:37curious and she came over and Chloe in
8:40front of 200 people sat down on the edge
8:43of the stage, lifted up the front of her
8:45skirt and turned over the inside of the
8:47hem. She said, "Would you read that out
8:49loud, please? Your eyes are probably
8:52better than mine. I've been crying all
8:54day." Mrs. Laurent put on her glasses.
8:57She bent down. And in that big quiet
8:59ballroom, she readed out in a clear
9:01voice for Chloe from your aunt Ruthie
9:04with all my love. Nobody moved. A waiter
9:07came through the kitchen door and it
9:09bumped my chair. Chloe said into the
9:11microphone, "My aunt Ruth made this
9:13dress. She made it above a dry cleaners
9:16after work for 11 months. She paid for
9:18the lace herself. She has been teaching
9:21me to sew since I was 5, and she's
9:23sitting at table 19 by the kitchen
9:25door." Then her voice broke and she
9:28said, "Aunt Ruthie, would you please
9:29come up here?" I don't remember standing
9:32up. I remember that Paul's uncle yelled,
9:34"What's going on?" And I remember
9:36walking across that enormous room in my
9:38plain blue dress with 200 people looking
9:41at me and thinking that my mother would
9:43have told me to stand up straight. Kloe
9:46hugged me so hard she popped a pin. Mrs.
9:48Laurent took my hand and turned it over
9:50and looked at my fingers at all the
9:53little needle scars. She said, "30 years
9:56and I have never seen better." "Where's
9:58your shop?" I said, "It's above Kim's
10:00dry cleaning." She laughed. She said,
10:03"Not for long." And then I saw Paul. He
10:06had stood up at the family table and he
10:08was looking at his wife. He wasn't angry
10:10exactly. He looked like a man doing a
10:13very long math problem. He said quietly,
10:16but the microphone was close enough to
10:18catch it. Diane, I wrote you a check for
10:20$12,000.
10:22My sister had gone the color of the
10:24tablecloth. She didn't say anything at
10:26all. The band, God bless them, started
10:29playing. Here's what happened. After
10:31Diane gave the money back to Paul, most
10:34of it had gone on a kitchen renovation
10:36and a trip to Scottsdale. Paul told her
10:39to give it to me instead. I told him I
10:41couldn't take it, and he said, "Ruth,
10:43I've been married to your sister for 34
10:45years. Don't argue with me." So, I used
10:48it to pay for what I'd always wanted and
10:51could never afford, a shop at street
10:53level with a big front window. Mrs.
10:55Laurent put Khloe's dress on the cover
10:57of her magazine that fall. The headline
11:00said, "The dress from above the dry
11:02cleaners. I had orders for 2 years
11:04within a month. I hired two young women
11:06from my old neighborhood, and I'm
11:08teaching them everything my mother
11:10taught me." Diane didn't speak to me for
11:125 months. Then one rainy Tuesday in
11:15November, the bell on my new door rang,
11:17and there she was without any makeup,
11:20holding a plastic bag. I hadn't seen her
11:22without makeup since we were girls. She
11:25took out one of mom's old aprons. She
11:27said, "I found it when I was cleaning
11:29out the attic." I said, "Diane, you kept
11:32that." She said, "I've kept it for 40
11:34years. I just never told anyone where it
11:37came from." Then she started to cry. She
11:39said, "I was so ashamed of where we came
11:41from, Ruthie. and you were the one who
11:44never left it. Every time I looked at
11:46you, I saw it. I'm so sorry. I'm so
11:49sorry about table 19. I got up and made
11:52her a cup of tea. Then I sat her down at
11:54the second sewing machine. I said,
11:56"Thread that needle." She said, "I don't
11:59remember how." I said, "I know. That's
12:01why I'm going to show you. She comes in
12:03on Thursdays now. She's terrible at it."
12:06Her first pillow fell apart in the wash,
12:09and we laughed until we cried. Last
12:11month, Chloe told me she's expecting a
12:13baby, a little girl due in the spring.
12:16I've already started on the
12:17christristening gown. It's very small
12:19and very simple. And on the inside of
12:22the hem in pale blue thread, I've left
12:24just enough room for two more names. If
12:27this story touched your heart, please
12:28subscribe to Shadow Revenge. There's a
12:31new story every day, and I'd love for
12:33you to be part of it. So, let me ask
12:35you, if your sister took the credit for
12:38your work and sat you by the kitchen
12:40door, would you have stayed quiet like I
12:42did or stood up yourself? Tell me in the
12:45comments.

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