The Gown

Miriam arrives in London by train from France. She walks to the Wilton Hotel and books a room for three nights. She is nervous about handing her passport to the clerk because of her memories of the Gestapo in occupied France. Miriam requests an iron and board to iron her interview outfit for the next morning. Upstairs in her room, Miriam finally relaxes. She is still tired, weak, and wary of people despite being freed from the Ravensbrück concentration camp two years earlier.

Before she left France, Miriam visited Catherine, sister to the designer Dior. Miriam tells Catherine she is leaving France because the man who betrayed her Jewish family to the Gestapo hadn’t been charged because he helped the Resistance late in the war. Knowing that people’s hatred of Jews hasn’t gone away after the war, Miriam decides to emigrate. Catherine fetches her brother who thanks Miriam for helping his sister survive prison and gives her a letter of recommendation to help her find a job as an embroiderer in England. He also slips in 25 pounds.

After the hotel clerk delivers the iron and board, Miriam unpacks her best suit and blouse and irons them for her interviews in the morning. She goes to sleep and dreams of embroidery and her parents’ garden, which she tried visiting after the war to find everything she loved gone.

Heather is grocery shopping in her hometown of Toronto when she gets a call from her mother saying that her grandmother has died suddenly of pneumonia. Heather starts crying and her mother tells her to leave the groceries. The clerk allows Heather to leave her groceries for a friend to pick up later. Heather drives home thinking about her grandmother and how she loved flowers. When she gets home, Heather tells her roommate Michelle what happened. Michelle makes her tea and leaves to get the groceries. Heather thinks about the last time she had seen her grandmother two weeks ago, and they had tea and scones. Heather hadn’t known that it was the last time she would see her.