I Hope Your Dress

Digital collage on fabric, 25 x 16 cm, Private Collection

I hope you have a good time at the social. I hope your dress is equal to the occasion. I would have bought you a silk jumper if I could have done but I couldn’t buy a six-legged jumper even if it was only a tanner. I had to buy corduroys for the boys as their bums were bare.

Mostly the letters only provided me one side of the story, but in some instances Ada Lightfoot refers back to things her daughter Frances had mentioned in her earlier letters. It appeared that Frances was planning on attending a social event, and like many young women, she was worrying about what to wear and whether her dress was good enough. I was so moved by theses lines from Ada, as they brought home to me the poverty this family was experiencing that I let my imagination run free. I waved my fairy godmother’s wand and turned Frances into a ‘Cinderella.’

Note: A tanner was a slang term for a sixpence, a relatively low denomination coin.