Scent of a (Particular) Woman

I passed by the fragrance counter in the store today and decided to stop and try something. Chanel no. 5 caught my eye. I thought, "That's the most famous women's fragrance in the world. It's been around for almost ninety years. I heard once that a bottle is sold somewhere an average of every thirty seconds (my mind is full of all kinds of useless helpful trivia like that...) and I don't even know what it smells like!"

So I stopped and sniffed and sprayed a bit on my wrists. I started to walk on and thought, "I know that scent. I think I use to know someone who wore this. Who was it?"

A minute or two later it hit me. It was my great-grandmother! She wore it. Quite a lot of it actually. It's amazing to me the clarity of recall that is attached to our sense of smell. She passed away when I was about three and yet I still have such a clear memory of her; what she looked like, how soft the skin on her hands was, the fur colar on her thick wool coat and how she loved big sparkly costume jewelry...and perfume.

So now I know. No. 5 may not be the fragrance for me, but it was nice to visit Grandma for a few minutes.