Granddaughter wears grandmother’s wedding dress 52 years later

On October 11, 1969, in a little town in Illinois named Pecatonica, David Adams and Bernadette ”Bernie” Leather were married. Bernie had gone to New Glarus, Wis. to purchase a custom-made wedding dress.

Afterward, Bernie Adams did what many brides do: She had her dress cleaned and preserved by placing it into an airtight barrel.

In subsequent years, after moving to Hawaii and then to Texas, one of the Adams’ children placed a letterman jacket next to the wedding dress inside its barrel. The protective bag broke, and a purple spot transferred from the jacket to the wedding dress.

Fast forward 52 years later to the wedding of the Adams’ granddaughter, Michaela Garza, who wanted to wear her grandmother’s veil.

At the time, Bernie Adams did not hear that Garza also wanted to wear the dress. However, when Adams saw the spot on her wedding dress, she thought she would attempt to remove the stain for the sake of her peace of mind. She sprayed Shout on it, soaked the dress in Biz and then put it in the washing machine in a cold water wash.

Garza then called Adams, informing her that she wanted to wear the dress, too.

To which Adams thought, “Oh now what have I done?”

Fortunately, when Adams removed the dress from the washer, the spot was gone. The dress was white, but there was one problem: Garza was a lot taller than her grandmother.

Both set out to find someone to alter the dress, adding length to it with a similar material.

On March 12, in Waelder, Tex., Michaela Garza and Joe Goodman married in the 125-yearold Thompsonville Community Church, wearing the same dress her grandmother, Bernadette Leather Adams wore 52 years before.