Special Item With Special Purpose At Melrose Citywide Yard Sale

MELROSE, MA — Mary Gervino had tears in her eyes when remembering her wedding 14 years ago. With her freshly unpacked wedding dress looming like a specter just a few feet away, she started to choke up.

"I was just thinking of walking down the aisle with my father," she said before retreating behind the kitchen wall.

It's that kind of memory she hopes she can afford someone else who might not otherwise have the opportunity. Gervino is selling her wedding dress, bought for a few thousand dollars in 2003, for a couple hundred bucks during Saturday's citywide yard sale. All the proceeds will go to the Red Cross to help victims of recent hurricanes.

Gervino thinks it's a Maggie Sottero. It comes complete with hand bag and wrap. She's charging $325 for it, hoping that it will be a gift to someone in need; Perhaps it finds its way to someone whose wedding preparations were washed away by the hurricanes.

"What would make it worth it for me would be someone who couldn't afford a dress," Gervino said. (Subscribe to Melrose Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.)

Gervino moved to Melrose with her husband Jim in 2012. They live at 62 School Street, but the driveway where the wedding dress and other items will be is on Sawyer Road. That's a little connector between School and Lincoln Street - Sawyer is so tiny it has just one address.

On Saturday, the couple will be in that driveway selling bikes, yard tools, home decor, and books - lots of books. "At least 100," Jim said. The books that don't sell will be donated, perhaps to the Melrose Public Library.

But the item that is likely to catch everyone's eye is that dress.

"When I saw Mary walk down the aisle in that, I had tears in my eyes," Jim said.

It was an emotional decision for Mary, but not overly difficult. Her dress had been subject to the same fate countless others suffer: The lonely abandonment to a box in the attic. Now it's time for a new owner.

"We have memories," she said. "We can make new memories."

Are you selling something unique or interesting this weekend? Or are you donating proceeds? Email mike.carraggi@patch.com.

Photos by Mike Carraggi