Boston Globe Highlights Story of Catherine Malatesta's Prom Dress

Photo Credit: Keefe Funeral Home

ARLINGTON, MA—Inspired by the "Sisterhood of Traveling Pants," friends of late Arlington High School student Catherine Malatesta will be paying homage to their fallen friend.

Highlighted by The Boston Globe, a group of Malatesta's friends from her summer camp, as well as Arlington High School friends, will be wearing the dress that Malatesta wore to her junior prom at upcoming events. Malatesta attended the Arlington High School prom just a few months before her passing from a rare form of cancer on August 2, 2015.

In a piece entitled "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Prom Dress," Bella English of the Boston Globe highlighted the journey of the dress in a piece on the Globe's website published Thursday:

In one hospital emergency room, Catherine told her mother about a prom dress she had seen online. “Let’s buy it,” her mom said.

The lovely, smoky blue dress arrived, and it was perfect. They took Catherine’s wig to a hairdresser. Catherine was determined to go to her junior prom on May 29 with childhood friend Peter Clifford.

The two weeks before the prom, she was hospitalized with fluid in her lungs. She was discharged at 7 p.m. the night before the prom. She went to the dance and had a great time. But four days later, she was hospitalized, and she remained at Children’s until she died on Aug. 2, 2015. She left behind her mother, father Gregg, two younger brothers, and an army of friends.

“The last time most of her friends saw her was at prom,” says her mother. “The last thing they saw her in was her dress.”

English reported a conversation with Malatesta's mother Jennifer Goodwin, who stated that the blue dress was the last article of clothing that Malatesta's friends saw her in.

Goodwin invited Catherine’s best friends to go through her things and take what they wanted. “Her prom dress was still hanging on her closet door, and her friends started trying it on. They said, ‘We should all wear Catherine’s dress,’” Goodwin says.

“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Prom Dress” is what Goodwin is calling the effort, in a nod to the best-selling novel, and movie, about 16-year-old girlfriends and some special pants that bonded them.

Some of those wearing the dress are camp friends, others are Arlington High friends. The first to wear Catherine’s dress will be Jillian Danton, who is going to the Arlington High junior prom on Friday.

Then Emma Schambers will wear it to the East Greenwich High School senior prom in Rhode Island on May 13. Next, Lauren Hourican will wear it to the Arlington High senior prom on May 20. The last one is Carly Blau, who will wear it to the Beverly High School senior prom on June 2.

You can also view English's full piece here.