A decade ago, Suzanne Lafond was chosen from more than 8,000 nominated grandmothers and crowned the Granny Smith of 1997 by the Washington Apple Commission.
The Nashville transplant from Montreal, now 76, with her stunning white hair, brilliant blue eyes and elegant voice, is a cross between Helen Mirren and Mrs. Claus so it’s easy to see how she caught the eyes of apple farmers-turned judges seeking an energetic and quintessential granny to represent their livelihood.
In the 365-day spokesperson role, Lafond received royal treatment and handsome earnings as she toured the country storytelling the virtues of apples and a healthy lifestyle. The legacy, however, of winning the Granny Smith title would prove to be discovering the nonprofit Dress for Success during an Oprah episode Lafond was watching while waiting in her hotel room to be taken to an interview.
Dress for Success helps disadvantaged women enter the workforce by providing them with suits and dresses to wear to interviews and first days of work. But Lafond saw an opportunity to do more than fasten buttons of professional attire — she saw a chance to extend a kind hand and a confidence boost to women in need.
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh baby, Nashville needs that,’ and so when I got back to town I wrote Dress for Success headquarters asking for the start up material,” Lafond said. “I got very sold on it. I have been doing volunteer work since I was 17 in the Motorcorps. We drove big limousines with the big Canadian Red Cross on the door. I picked up blind people at their place of residence — I had about six or eight — and I would take them to a recreational center and leave them for about two or three hours and then pick them back up in the limo and take them back home.”
In 1998 at the end of her tour of duty as Granny Smith, Lafond helped spearhead Nashville’s first Dress for Success affiliate in Nashville. And, after the start up year spent in a donated classroom in Cockrill Elementary School, Lafond took over as the director of the nonprofit.
Lafond, for the past nine years, has been a one-woman show helping more than 2,500 local women in their journey from welfare to the workforce. The majority are between the ages of 20 to 55 and come referred to her by various local agencies like the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Department of Human Services, National Council on Aging, YWCA, Workforce Essentials, Hope Center or Mental Health Co-op.
When women come for their dressing appointments, Lafond greets them with her simple philosophy:
“I am very prepared to love them when they walk in the door,” Lafond said.
The women are often hardened and have endured violent domestic abuse, drug or alcohol addictions, serious illnesses, the struggles of raising children with disabilities, losing their homes and more, but Lafond has a way of disarming the women with her patient demeanor. They seem to instinctively know they can share their stories and not be judged or pitied. The stories Lafond hears often reveal ways that she is able to help them further. One woman explained that she was missing her front teeth after a blow delivered by her husband, and Lafond referred the woman to a dentist who performs charity work.
Or, if they choose, the women can silently listen to the classical music playing in the background and enjoy the attention lavishly bestowed by Lafond.
“I tell them their experience will be like the expensive boutiques in big cities where clients are brought the clothes,” Lafond said.
The garments, mostly donated articles by affluent women or local department stores, are stored in a tidy back room where Lafond hangs them neatly by size. Their tags reveal designer names such as Anne Klein, Dana Buchman, Jones of New York, Le Suit, Ellen Tracy and Talbot’s.
Part of finessing the job is Lafond’s ability to dress the women’s various body types while also encouraging the women to be proud of their curves and characteristics. Most have been too overwhelmed by the hardships of their lives to eat healthy or exercise regularly, which means many are overweight and larger sizes are the most in demand, Lafond said.
“The women will say things when I start dressing them like, ‘Oh, I am too short,’ or ‘I had a big butt,’ or ‘I am bosom-y,’ and I will say, ‘These aren’t flaws, that’s how you are. It’s there and we are working around it and we have something that skims over it. That’s what I try and teach them,” Lafond said. “A well-fitting garment, whether it’s a dress or a suit, should touch you on the shoulders, on the bosoms and on hips and just skim over the rest of your body. That is a word that I use a lot with these ladies: skimming — it should be skimming not grabbing. That’s not easy to achieve. That’s what I keep in mind. It’s what my mother taught me; she was a good teacher.”
A photograph of Lafond’s mother sits on a table inside her Dress for Success office. The woman is captured strolling the streets of downtown Montreal while on a shopping trip, clad in gloves, a hat and a fur jacket.
A bowl of ‘thank you’ letters overflows on a coffee table. The cards are handwritten messages like, “Dear. Ms. Suzanne, Many thanks for the suits last week. I was the one with the black slacks and green jacket. Thank you for everything, thank you for sharing your pictures,” “Thank you so much for the suit, shoes and undergarment. I really appreciate your help. I hope to do you proud,” and “Thank you for the attention I received and all your gifts.”
Lafond began deliberately leaving the letters out so that the women can learn from the manners of the women before them. She is also quick to politely correct fashion faux pas and incorrect grammar as well as give advice on interview skills like a firm handshake, straight posture and smart questions to ask.
At the end of the month, though, Lafond will begin dismantling Dress for Success because of lack of cash.
“Too many sleepless nights because we can’t get the funding. We are stagnating, we aren’t moving forward, we are moving backward,” Lafond said. “I had a little crying jag for a few days, but now I feel a sense of relief because it’s been very stressful, and I feel very secure in saying where one door closes, another opens.”
“The good memories in here are when the women are happy and they are sweet about it. Once several women arrived by a van all together, so I took care of all these ladies and they were very nice. There was this very, very tall woman who asked me if she could hug me and I said, ‘Of course,’ so we all hugged. Then she said, ‘Let’s all join hands and pray.’ I was so moved I was crying while she was praying. Not ugly tears just tears rolling down my cheeks. That was beautiful.”
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=58226
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