The Gown

In Chapter 1, Ann comes home from work with a pot of white heather from Balmoral, a thank you from the queen for her work on the South African royal tour gowns. Her sister-in-law Milly turns up her nose at it, but Ann says, “Haven’t you seen heather in bloom? It’s ever so pretty. And this is white heather. For good luck, one of the girls said” (3). Heather is introduced as a symbol of good luck and beauty. Although this is the first occurrence, it won’t be the last for heather appears when there is a significant change in Ann’s life. Although Ann doesn’t realize it yet, this heather is given right before Milly moves to Canada, which is the catalyst for Ann becoming friends with Miriam.

After Jeremy steals Ann’s sketch and publishes Doris’s wedding dress as Princess Elizabeth’s, Ann tells Mr. Hartnell what happened. He assures her that he does not blame her, and he is curious about the good-luck motif she included in her sketch. Ann added a sprig of white heather to the design. Mr. Hartnell tells Ann to add an embroidered heather to the princess’s gown as Ann’s special contribution—a silver lining of good luck after the terrible things that Ann endured from Jeremy.

When Ann emigrated to Canada, she took the white heather the queen had given her across the Atlantic. Later, Heather reveals to Miriam that it grew in Ann’s garden in Canada, and Heather and her mother kept some. At the end of the novel, Ann’s heather lives on in her family, a symbol of beauty, good luck, and endurance.

The most obvious symbol of heather is, of course, Ann’s granddaughter being named Heather. Ann said Heather was “the light of her life” (363). Heather is the living embodiment of life, beauty, and good luck that Ann carried with her throughout her life and passed on. Heather is also a symbol of new beginnings, for whenever heather appeared in Ann’s life, it was for a new beginning. Ann’s last section ends with the sentence: “It was a beautiful day, the first day of spring, and soon the Balmoral heather would be in bloom.”