VANITY

It was grandmother’s 80th birthday celebration. The house was so invaded by family members that meals had to be served in shifts. Sleeping bags were spread out on stairway landings. The driveway was jammed with 12 cars, bumper- to-bumper, double-parked.

The high point of the celebra- tion was a Saturday evening reception and dinner at Church. All afternoon, true to her form of a lifetime, vain, old grand- mother conducted what amounted to a personal fashion show for the rest of the family. She tried on a new dress and asked everybody, “How do you like it? Should I wear this one tonight?”

Then she tried on another and repeated the process. Then came the jewelry combinations and the shoes and the hairdo and all the rest.

Until finally, when it seemed that grandmother had run out of things to show off, she appeared in still another new dress. “I got this one on sale,” she said, “It’s my burial dress.”