The Yesterday Dress

By Teena Raffa-Mulligan

A pearl button from Mama's wedding glove starts Angelina's yesterday collection. Soon everyone in her big multicultural family has a memory to share and a special keepsake to give her.

"What will you do with them?" asks Mama.

A school dress-up parade for Pioneers Day gives Angelina a wonderful idea of what to do with her yesterday things.

 

A warm-hearted story about family connections

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sea Song Publications
• Release date: Mar 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9780645150391

Teena Raffa-Mulligan

Teena Raffa-Mulligan is a reader, writer and daydream believer who believes there is magic in every day if you choose to find it. She discovered the wonderful world of storytelling as a child and decided to become a writer at an early age. Teena writes for children and adults and her publications range from poetry and short stories to picture books and novels. Her writing life has also included a long career in journalism. She shares her passion for books and writing by presenting talks and workshops to encourage people of all ages to write their own stories.

Book preview

A special Sunday

ANGELINA REMEMBERED it was a special Sunday the minute she woke up. Last night before going to sleep she had ticked off the last waiting day on her ballerina wall calendar. Today her baby brother Jack was being baptised at the church in the city where her family went every Sunday for mass.

Angelina felt a thrill of excitement right down to her toes. She and Jack were the youngest of all the many cousins in her big family and she didn’t remember ever going to a christening. Daddy and Mama had told her it was a very important occasion, so important that they had been planning it almost forever.

The whole family would be there, all the Italian, English and Australian relations together at once, and afterwards everyone was going back to Zia Lucia’s house. Hers was the only house with room enough for everybody.

Angelina knew it would be like Christmas, only with lots more people, and all the grandparents, aunts and uncles talking at once in a mixture of Italian and English around the huge dining room table. The big house would be filled with happy sounds. Angelina was looking forward to playing in the rambling garden with its many secret spaces. It was going to be the best day.

She bounced out of bed and did a little whirling dance around the room, finishing with a quick bobbed curtsy to the mirror in the corner. The new dress Mama had made her was hanging on the wardrobe door and Angelina smiled as she stroked the skirt. She loved the way its colour changed from blue to green in different light. Like the ocean where Daddy took her to sit on the rocks and watch the waves rolling in and out.

Jack didn’t have new clothes to wear today. He would be wearing something that had been worn by lots of other babies in the family. Last week when Mama showed it to her, Angelina had said, He can't wear that. It's a dress.

Mama had laughed. It’s a christening gown for baby girls and boys. Your Italian great-grandmother made it many years ago. I wore it and so did you, blossom. One day your babies might wear it too.

Only if they’re girls, Angelina had said. Anyway, I like new things and I always will.

That was before she found the small pearl button.

A small pearl button

ANGELINA WAS ready to go to the church long before the rest of the family. She was so excited, she couldn’t stop dancing around.

Daddy stared at her over his glasses. Did you have grasshoppers for breakfast?