A Prize

Most women who fled the 1944 Soviet occupation of Lithuania left behind their heavy folk costumes. My Mom, for example, owned an elaborate folkdress ensemble that she could not pack on the day she left home. She thought she'd be gone for only a few weeks, and she therefore placed only essential items into her small suitcase.

As a result, the folkdress that I wore was not my Mom's original costume; it was instead a set cobbled from pieces of other people's ensembles. My folkdress lacked regional and artistic continuity.

My Toronto Cousin's Mother-in-law also did not bring her folkdress when she emigrated to Canada. A few years later, however, the Mother-in-law won a folk costume. We don't know what occasion sparked the folk costume lottery, but it was quite the prize. The folk costume had been woven by the same woman who later created a folkdress for Princess Diana.

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Montreal, Canada, early 1950s. Here is the folk costume that Toronto Cousin's Mother-in-law won.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making these photos available to us.