Sonja Henie's Ice Show costume

Sonja Henie, skating with John Walsh, American figure skater. Mr. Walsh died on November 2, 2007, aged 85. Photo: Walsh family from the Boston Globe.

In 1979, a stagehand in Chicago gave me a costume from Sonja Henie's Ice Show. His mother had been a dresser on the show and had kept the costume. He was a Local #2 guy, running spotlight at the International Amphitheatre, on the South Side. I worked for the circus, and was running electrics and calling spots for the show.

I don't know why he decided to give it to me. I was not even a union sister at the time - that came later, in the '80's. But he was an older man who lived alone and his mother had just passed, and I was a nice girl who worked for the circus. I suppose he thought I'd appreciate it.

I did. I truly did. It was incredible. There was a magnificent pink and silver sparkly headdress, and then there was a bra and a kind of sarong-like thing that was worn about the waist. You could tell that the three pieces weren't part of the same costume - the headdress was sequinned, but the bra and sarong were flesh-colored netting sewn with rectangular-shaped silver spangles - is that what they call paillettes? There were also these wonderful sequinned gauntlets - things that fit over your arms like long gloves without fingers - there was an elastic loop that fit over your middle finger.

Even then - I was 24 - the sarong and bra were too small for me. I could have worn the headdress - if I were a hat person, but I'm not. I really had no use for this gift. But I carried it around with me for many, many years - he'd packed it in this odd cubically shaped cardboard box that was awkward to store, so I am telling the truth that I really did make an effort to hold onto it.

At some point in my hectic life, my Sonja Henie Ice Show costume disappeared - it fell away from me, like many other things.

The art deco place settings found on Canal Street that I shipped from New York to Seattle - I packed them carelessly, and they broke in transit.

The Heywood-Wakefield dining room set I bought on Canal Street for $100. It was too bulky to move from apartment to apartment.

The amazing gilt Eastlake-style mirror I found on the street and restored. Did I leave that at my parents' house before moving West?

The fantastic '50's printed circle skirt I found at a vintage shop - it was too wide for my waist - damn, it would fit me perfectly today!!!

The vintage 1952 Hawaiian shirt depicting a pre-Space Needle Seattle - unwisely, I dry-cleaned it too many times, and it crumbled away.

The antique kimono, left at a hotel while on the road.

All gone.

What are the lost, precious things you remember from your lives?