I have never been a fan of clothes shopping but when my mom was alive we made it fun. A store dressing room is one of the places I miss her the most.
Even though it’s never been my favorite thing to do, I have a great professional wardrobe lying in wait for a chance to get back out there. I spend my days at home in yoga pants or sweats and if I go out, I may get crazy and put on jeans.
I’ve needed some new things and my husband has been a real trooper this past week. He’s helped me find some new tops and he now knows what leggings and jeggings are and can even tell the difference. He has been pointing them out to me when he sees someone wearing either.
Last night we went to Kohl’s and after showing me the clearance racks in my size, he left me to take my time and see what I could find on my own. He then helped me find some sizes I needed and even suggested some tops I hadn’t seen. While I went back and forth to the dressing room, he waited patiently on a bench, working his phone.
When I was finally done I showed him what I was going to buy. As he looked at the last shirt in the stack I was holding, he said, with some apparent trepidation, “You know there’s a Christmas tree on there, right?”
I did know. In December I had looked everywhere for a new holiday shirt and had not found one. I would have thought he would remember this because once again he was involved, but I think his sole concern was that I hadn’t been able to see that there was a tree on the shirt. It was really sweet the way he asked, obviously trying to be sensitive to an already trying situation, since he knows how difficult shopping is for me now. Gone are the days of jumping in my car alone, browsing the racks for colors and styles that catch my eye, as my eyes don’t catch much these days.
My husband has stepped to the plate in so many ways since my vision loss. In ways neither of us could have imagined back in 1992 when we got married. We knew the “sickness” part of our vows would come, but 20 years in we thought it was still a long way off.
We expected that our joints would wear out, our hearing would diminish and our eyesight would decline with age. There was a chance one of us would not be able to drive in our senior years due to any number of maladies. But never did we think this would happen in our 40s. And never did we think my sports-loving husband would become my stylist. That most definitely was not in the vows.
#fashionweekherewecome
