Sunday 13 July 2014

There is a red cashmere-wool

cardigan missing from my friend's wardrobe. There is also a blue woollen sleeveless one with buttons like pansies missing as well.
I know because I made them for her. I gave them to her sister three years ago. Her sister was making a trip to see her and, rather than post them, I gave them to her to pass over.
Everything else I have made my friend over the years was still there. She refused to part with anything I have made. The red mohair cardigan and the blue mohair-wool one were worn almost threadbare. The grey mohair tweed one needed mending - again. There are others as well. All of them were made with longer than usual armholes so it would be easier for her to dress.  
I am delighted that they have been used so much. Yes, she has taken good care of them. They have been washed carefully and appropriately.
So, the absence of the other two garments puzzled me. That the two things I gave her at the same time should not be there also puzzled me.
And then I remembered that my friend had been in hospital when her sister went to see her. I remembered that my friend had never thanked me for them - something she has always been punctilious about. At the time I had assumed she was too ill to be bothered. It was unlike her but it seemed the only explanation. I had asked my friend's sister whether they had fitted. It seemed the best way to ask if they had actually reached her.
There was a slight hesitation and then she said vaguely, "Oh yes. It was so cold when I was there we both wore them."
Her sister can be vague, very vague so I did not think too much about it - until now.
And now I wonder - I wonder whether those things actually reached my friend or whether they are sitting on a chair in her sister's unit under a pile of books or packed in a suitcase she decided not to take.
Her sister is not dishonest but she is not to be relied on. Perhaps I should ask her if she has taken them to be washed?

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