Despite all this, her family’s clothing allowance was run on a meticulous budget. That is why she frequently rifled through things at the secondhand clothing shops. One never knows what one might discover. Besides, Tina enjoyed looking.
Then one day rather suddenly, in fact very suddenly, her husband died. Tina had to decide what her husband should be buried in. She would always remember him lying there buried in whatever he was wearing. She chose his favourite shirt. It had a little tear which she mended. Trousers were chosen for comfort, and he should wear slippers and not his shoes. The shoes were too good to waste. She would take them to the secondhand clothing store herself. He would have no tie, but his jacket was important. It was one these days he rarely wore, but he had worn it for years every Saturday taking the boys to their sports games.
Tina arranged all his other clothes, and the shoes, to take to the secondhand clothing store. Since she was going to a neighbouring town to see a friend about a week later, she wouldn’t drop things off at the local store. The neighbouring town had such a store as well. She would use that.
When she was there she had a quick look at the racks of secondhand clothing. There was her husband’s shirt with the little tear she had mended. There was his jacket. There were his slippers. She didn’t dare look for his trousers. She could never imagine him lying there without them.
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