My husband ironed my mother’s dress because I could not touch it

Dear Delyara, My mother died last week. She asked to be buried in a blue dress she wore to my wedding. I took it from her wardrobe and carried it home, then left it hanging over a chair because every time I touched the fabric I remembered Mum dancing badly at the reception. This morning, I came downstairs and found my husband ironing it. He had placed a towel over the delicate beading and was working slowly because he was frightened of damaging it. I became angry. I said he should have asked me. He switched the iron off immediately and apologized. Then I saw his hands shaking. He said, “I thought you shouldn’t have to do every last thing.” I sat on the floor and cried. My husband and my mother did not always get along. She criticized him for twenty years; he complained about her afterward; they loved each other mostly through me. Yet there he was removing creases from the dress she would wear inside a coffin because he could see that her daughter could not. I finished one sleeve with him. Tomorrow, Mum will be buried in it. I will probably spend the funeral noticing whether we missed any wrinkles.