A WEDDING DRESS MIRACLE?

After losing her wedding dress in the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s destructive path, Staten Island woman Nicole Pagliaro assumed the gown was lost forever.

Pagliaro had worn two dresses during her July 2012 wedding: the first, an heirloom from her aunt and another, a modern, floor-length gown she wore during the reception. She dropped the latter off at a local dry cleaners in late August and was told to pick it up in a month, but the storm hit before she ever could. Like the rest of the neighborhood, the store was flooded and suffered major damage, eventually closing its doors and offering no phone number or forwarding address.

Having seen photos of the damage to the store, and with no way to contact the storeowner, Pagliario accepted that her dress was gone for good, even though she was heartbroken over the loss. What she couldn’t have known is that her gown was actually the only thing in the store to have survived the storm. In an incredible stroke of good luck, the dress had been securely stored in a box that ended up floating on top of the water.

It wasn’t until earlier month when Pagliario and her husband were driving through an area they rarely frequent, that they spotted a new dry cleaning store opened — with a gown that looked exactly like hers in the window. Though chances that her dress had survived the storm were slim to none, Pagliario decided to inquire about the gown anyway. And it’s lucky she did! It turns out not only was the dress hers, butt the owner remembered her and greeted her with a hug before returning the gown she had given him two years ago.

"I want my daughter to wear the dress at her wedding," Pagliario told Staten Island Live of the amazing occurrence. Meanwhile, her husband, Michael, sees it as "another symbol of our relationship surviving everything.”

Such a sweet and heartwarming story! Clearly, that gown was meant to be a part of the Pagliarios family history and will always have a special place in their story.

Image: Staten Island Live