My daughter is graduating in a week and it is a big deal for not just the usual reasons but also because she missed her high school graduation (it happened during the pandemic). It seems like it was just yesterday we went to her middle school graduation and sometime before that to her preschool graduation. The only difference was, the last two times I got to pick her dress. I mean, she did try it on and had a say but ultimately it was something that “we” the parents also liked.
Fast forward to college and girly pop has her own ideas about what looks good on her. So we went dress shopping about a month ago and she was looking for a white dress because that was the color the students were supposed to wear. Unfortunately, we didn’t find anything that tickled her fancy. There was this one dress in the Junior’s section that I thought looked good on her. She didn’t like the fit or the fact that it was from the Junior’s section (cue eye roll). But I insisted that she buys it, my logic being “what if you don’t find another dress?”
More eye rolling and hemming and hawing later, she bought it and after consulting with her best friend (who agreed that it did look like it came from the Junior’s section) the two of them started browsing for dresses online. The next time I spoke to her…still no dress! I was beginning to think that my dress was the dress, when she told me she was going to wear it to her poster presentation which was at the end of April. My heart sank.
I couldn’t go to her presentation, so I wished her luck and asked her for pictures. She sent me a picture of herself (clearly not in my white dress). Again some faint hope, that my dress had grown on her, was kindled in my heart. The next day when we spoke she told me that she ended up wearing a Ted Baker dress that my cousin G had passed on to me. The dress was too formal for my style, so I had given it to A a few years ago.
Then she asked me, “Guess what I found in the pocket.”
“I don’t know,” I said, clearly clueless.
“Wait! I’ll send you a picture.”
I stared at my phone, waiting for the picture to pop up in the chat. Ding! The picture came through. I zoomed in and it was a laundry tag. Maybe my daughter picked up on the confusion at my end.
“See the name on it, Ma,” I heard her say.
I read the name in disbelief: Ravi Damodaran! My dad’s name. Her grandpa’s name.
So many emotions surged through me. The grief of losing my father 3 years ago, just as my daughter started her freshman year in college. Knowing that he couldn’t be with us for the graduation and knowing how proud he was of me and his grandchildren.
But here was a little laundry tag, tucked away in a dress that my daughter had never worn before, screaming out his name and his steady presence in our lives.
“So do you know what you’re going wear for your graduation,” I asked my daughter.
“You gotta wear this dress!”
“I gotta wear this dress!”
We both said in unison.
And that’s when it became crystal clear to me why we never found a graduation dress for A (or one she actually liked)! Because Papa already had one in mind. Thank you, Papa for blessing your granddaughter on her special day and beyond. I love you always and forever. See you at the graduation ceremony with the rest of the fam.
Punctuate Life 