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Hand-me-downs were a norm in poor families. If we were lucky, we got to shop and got our 'brand new' New Year clothes and shoes from neighborhood shops once a year.

Some thirty years down the road since those hard times, my wardrobe still holds a couple of hand-me-downs. They serve to remind me of the good old days when money was scarce and hard to come by, when my mother, my four siblings and I were housed in a two bedroom rented apartment and subsequently in one we could finally call our own.

One of these is a multi-paneled flan skirt which falls five inches below my knees. Because of its elastic waistband, I am still able to wear it after my waist increased by two inches due to pregnancy. This skirt once belonged to my eldest aunt and was first claimed by my third sister who was slightly taller than I was. A few years down the road, when I started working, it became mine.

I wore it to dinners as well as an interview for a senior position. I got the position. The skirt serves to remind me of that day when I had so impressed the then director of Education for a position I had not wanted but was thrust into my face. Years later, when I studied the Book of Esther in the Holy Bible, I realized how much one had to go through to be a hundred percent dedicated to one's mission. The skirt reminds me to be a hundred percent dedicated to my Savior who had to wear a borrowed cloak and crown and bear the shame of the world's sins in order to buy my salvation.

Just as I have been given a new lease of life time and again, hand-me-downs can be made new with a little ingenuity. Among the hand-me-downs were a pair of pants none of my taller sisters wanted. I had read of jockey pants and thought I would do a little sewing. I wore the pants to a church camp. It became an instant success among the youth. The first question was always 'Where did you buy it/" to which I would proudly share my creativity story which was borne out of poverty. The pants stayed with me until I grew too fat around the waist. Unfortunately, it did not have an elastic band that my handed-me-down skirt had. A few years down the road when the fashion world finally caught up with my home-brewed fashion, and I was working enough to afford my own clothing, I bought a pair which I keep till today to remind me of its origin and to remind me to be thrifty.

Hand-me-downs did not just come in the form of clothing. Needless to say, school uniforms and school shoes were likewise handed down from one sibling to another

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