The Perfect Hat

Now, what does a woman do with last summer's hat? When my women's group announced a "Pretty in Pink" hat luncheon, the answer, for me, was obvious. I'll wear angels, I thought.

Years ago a friend gave me an angel pin with my March birthstone. Another freind gave me an angel holding a heart. A neighbor saw me frequently wearing one or the other and said, "Oh, you collect angels. Here, wear this one in good health." That's how it started.

"They'll soon be all over the house," my husband said.

He's with the real angels now, and he knows he was right. I have angels suction-cupped around the front door, angel magnets on the fireproof door to the garage and gossamer angels floating around the chandelier.

I wear angel earrings, bracelets and necklaces. A curio cabinet holds porcelain figures from Spain, and a box in the closet is crowded with angels waiting for Christmas, including the lovely one who's graced the treetop for more years than the number of birthdays I admit to.

As for the hat, I piled on a cloud of angel hair fluff and set a dozen angels flying through it. Definitely worth a prize, I thought. But my hat and I didn't win the contest. I suppose that, these days, no one's surprised by just how much I love angels.