Rachel Seidman

My grandmother Louise was a tiny woman who stood about 4 feet 10 inches tall in her stocking feet. She was born and raised in Utah, before Utah was a state. She was also a Jewish child living amongst the Mormons, along with her brother and sister.

Louise was born prematurely. The story I was told was that a Mormon midwife raced on horseback in the middle of the night to save her life by putting my grandmother in a basket by the stove to keep her warm. The midwife also stopped my great grandmother, Yetta, from hemorrhaging to death.

Growing up, Louise had a number of health problems due to her prematurity, and she was coddled as a child. Her parents, Saul and Yetta, believed that she was too sickly to attend school. As a result, she had very little formal education. However, Louise was resourceful and as she grew older and her fingers grew nimbler, she discovered that she excelled in art and crafts of many kinds. She became an accomplished seamstress and  made most of her own clothing by hand. She was adept at crocheting, knitting, and embroidery.

When I was a child, she handmade clothing for all of my Barbie dolls, including luxurious Jackie Kennedy-style evening gowns that glittered and miniskirts for the summer.  She also made go-go boots, bell bottom jeans, and fur lined boots and hats for the winter. It was thrilling to be the recipient of such beautiful clothing for my beloved Barbie dolls.

When I got older and was no longer playing with Barbie dolls, my grandmother started making clothing for me instead.  One of my most embarrassing favorites was a crocheted top to bottom body suit that left little to the imagination.

But my grandmother made my favorite outfit when I was fourteen years old: a dress I dubbed the “Cinderella Dress.” As a fourteen-year-old girl, I felt pretty when I was in it.  I loved the puffy sleeves and pretty embroidery that my grandmother stitched around the collar. This dress was imbued with love and I knew that I never wanted to give it away 

Today this dress lives in my closet, and every now and then. I take it out and gaze at it as a reminder of my sweet, funny, bubbly Grandma Louise.