First Communion girl looks stunning in mum's 40-year-old dress
Louise Walsh
A young Co. Cavan school girl turned heads last weekend when she made her First Holy Communion looking stunning in her mother's 40 year old dress.
Aileen McCaul (9), from Kingscourt, not only wore the four decade old dress but also the same earrings and Kenyan-made necklace that her mother Helen donned while taking the Sacrament in 1984.
The dress was in immaculate condition when Helen's own mother Peg retrieved it a few months ago after remembering where she had stored it for all those years.
Aileen made her First Holy Communion with her classmates from Laragh 2, Muff School at the local Church last weekend
"I bought a Communion dress for my eldest Sarah (26) and my younger daughter Mairead (16) wore that but then my mother remembered where she had tucked mine away and pulled it out in absolutely pristine condition", said mum of five, Helen.
"It was still pure white. We bought a new veil and it was the exact same colour of the dress.
"When Aileen saw it, she said she wanted to wear it and it fitted her perfectly. I made my Communion in first class and I was tall. They are making it in second class now. If it was last year, it might have been too big but it was perfect.
"I'm pretty sure we bought it back then in a fashion shop called Nina's in Trim but I'm not sure of the price.
"I got little cross earrings from my uncle Tom which I still had as well as beautiful while and gold necklace that my godfather Lal, who was a Franciscan Brother, bought me while he was a Missionary in Kenya.
"Aileen wore all that and looked so beautiful. The pictures are so surreal to look at. A picture of Aileen and then back at a picture of me taken in the same dress 40 years ago.
"My eldest daughter is expecting her first baby and I was toying with the idea of getting the dress made into a Christening gown but it will be Sarah's decision.
"It's incredible that while so many people are shelling out a fortune on dresses these days, a 40 year old dress can be just as beautiful, more because it has sentimental and emotional value"