When we landed last Wednesday, Keith told me that he had a surprise for Claire. One of his parishoners wanted to do something for her and it was ready for her visit. Thursday morning we went over to his Parish — met the staff who of course mooned over Claire. Then we went to visit a few parishoners in their homes. The second house we went to was a woman named Mary. Mary’s brother Frank was a tailor by trade in the Mechanicville area most of his life. He learned the skill from his father who was a tailor in Italy. He had heard Keith talk about Claire so many times that he decided to make Claire a very special dress.

The only words I have to describe this dress are breathtakingly beautiful. It is made of a duponi silk with hand appliquéd lace on the bottom hem, sleeves and front collar. What an amazingly touching gift from someone who doesn’t know me or Claire at all — just loves his pastor so much that he wanted to do something nice for his very special Goddaughter.

Now…this man is 90+ years old. Keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that he never had met Claire before — only knew that she was 3 1/2 years old. It fits her like a glove. This dress was finished shortly before he became seriously ill — so this dress was literally one of the last dresses he ever made. We had her pictures taken in it today, since we didn’t want to risk her outgrowing it.

What a beautifully amazing gift to us.