My brother has not bought himself a shirt since his wife passed. A man on the boardwalk at Grand Lake told me why.
My brother has not bought himself a shirt since his wife passed. A man on the boardwalk at Grand Lake told me why.
Two things I ordered for a widower who will not shop for himself, and the six reasons I would do it again, from a woman who knows every mailbox on a county route.
Connie Mayfield · Claremore, Oklahoma · 5 min read
I am 66 and I carried the mail on a county route for 28 years, so I am not one for putting things on Facebook. I would rather tell you to your face over a cup of coffee, and this started over one. I live on two acres outside Claremore, Oklahoma, with my husband Dale and an old basset hound named Deputy. This letter is about my brother Royce, who is seventy and lives on his own over in Inola.
The two things I am writing about are the Nigel and the Colin, from Iris and Nora, a small boutique down in Austin. The Nigel is a rust colored cardigan with a stand collar and a row of buttons. The Colin is a long sleeve henley, a plain top with three little buttons at the neck. I bought them for Royce. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, as long as I could tell it the way it happened.
In the middle of October, Bev and I drove up to Grand Lake to see the leaves. The summer crowd was long gone and the marina cafe had pie. A man about Royce’s age came in off the dock and sat at the next table. Rust cardigan, buttoned, the collar standing up, a blue shirt showing at the neck. He looked like somebody had sent him out of the house on purpose. Bev said, a little louder than she meant to, “Somebody dresses that man.” He turned around and said, “Nobody does. That is the trouble.” His name is Eldon. He lost his wife four years ago. “When she passed,” he said, “I found out I did not know my own size.” Then he told me where he got them. Read on.
Eldon on the boardwalk. He said I could put it in if I left his face out. Bev said it was a shame, and he did not argue.
Here is what I had been watching for two winters. Royce’s wife Lavelle bought every stitch that man owned for forty-six years. She passed two winters ago, and since then he has been wearing down the pile. The good flannel shirts went thin at the collar. The brown sweater got a hole in the elbow and stayed in the Christmas pictures anyway. And now his hunting coat goes everywhere, the feed store, the doctor, and once to church, where it sat in the pew beside him like it had come to pray.
I will tell you something from the route, and it is only my opinion. You could tell which houses had lost the wife by the mail. The catalogs quit coming. Nobody in there was ordering anything for anybody anymore. Royce’s box went quiet the winter Lavelle passed.
“When she passed, I found out I did not know my own size.”
The day they came. I had them sent to my house, laid them out on the kitchen table, and then drove them over to Inola myself. Old habits.
I ordered both that night, and I had Lavelle’s old note in my head, the one taped inside his closet door with his sizes on it in her handwriting. When the box came I did not mail it on. I drove it over and met Royce at his mailbox, the way I met people at their mailboxes for 28 years. He has worn them since, and I have been watching, because watching is most of what a mail carrier does. It comes down to six things, and I will give them to you plainly.
A row of buttons he can wear open or closed
The Nigel buttons all the way down the front, six of them from the chest to the hem, and two more up on the collar. The buttons are a contrast color, so you can see them. He can wear it done up on the way to church and open over his shirt at the kitchen table. Royce does it up wrong about half the time. It still looks better than the hunting coat.
On his kitchen chair, with the hunting coat on the peg behind it. The coat is still there. It just does not go to church now.
My dad wears it open in the house and buttoned up to go to town. First thing he has picked out of his closet in years.
Rhonda M., KetchumA collar that stands up neat
The collar on the Nigel stands up around his neck instead of lying flat. That is the part that made Eldon look put together across that cafe, and it does the same on Royce. It sits tidy over a shirt and leaves a little of the shirt showing at the neck. No hood to fold, no lapels to straighten. A man who does not own a mirror he trusts can put it on and walk out the door.
Royce on my porch after Sunday dinner. Deputy does not get up for anybody, but he lay down next to Royce’s boots.
The collar is what sold me. He looks dressed without a tie, which is the only way he will ever look dressed.
Bobbie Sue L., AftonSome texture to it, and one small badge
The knit on the Nigel has a raised pattern that runs across the body and down the sleeves, so it is not one flat color from across the room. There is a small badge on the chest, plain, with no writing on it. The sleeves run in a long line up to the collar, and the cuffs and the hem are ribbed and finish it off neat. It looks like a cardigan a man picked out, which, in Royce’s case, is the whole trick.
Got the olive for my husband. Nothing printed on it anywhere, which is how he likes it.
Gaylene R., SalinaThe Colin is one step up from a plain tee
The Colin is a long sleeve henley, a round neck with three small buttons at the top. It is one plain color with clean lines, and that is all it needs to be. On its own it looks dressier than the plain tees Royce was wearing out to the truck. Under the Nigel it shows just enough at the collar to look like he meant it.
At the tailgate on his own place. The blue was Lavelle’s color for him. I did not tell him that until after he said he liked it.
Bought the navy and the beige. He wears them under everything and they still look like a real shirt.
Twila H., ChanuteSizes for most men, and eight colors
The Colin comes in sizes from XS right up to 5XL, which matters if the man you are shopping for is built like my brother. It comes in eight colors: white, olive, black, light gray, dark gray, denim blue, navy and beige. The sleeves are full length and end in neat cuffs. I went by the size chart and not by guessing, the same way Lavelle’s note told me to, and I would tell you to do the same.
On his closet door. Lavelle’s note is still taped inside it. Her sizes were right.
Ordered a 3XL for my brother off the chart and it fit him the first time. No trip back to the post office.
Dorothy K., Siloam SpringsWear them together, the way Eldon did
The Colin goes on first and the Nigel goes over it, buttoned, with the collar up and a little blue showing at the neck. Khakis or jeans underneath, his same old boots. The Nigel comes in rust, olive, dark gray, beige, black and navy, in sizes S to 2XL. There are eight men’s tops in this collection altogether.
The first Sunday Royce came to dinner in them, Bev looked at him over the green beans and said, “Well, Royce. You look like somebody still looks after you.” He did not say anything. He just passed her the rolls. But on his way out the door, he asked me what other colors the cardigan came in.
Bought both for my father after Mom passed. He wears them together to church and stands up a little straighter in them.
Carolyn B., JoplinThe Nigel and the Colin, against the pile he was wearing down
You can let him keep wearing what is left, like I did for two winters. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Flannel shirts gone thin at the collar
A brown sweater with a hole in the elbow
The hunting coat, to church
Nobody ordering anything for him
Looks like a man nobody looks after
A stand collar that sits up neat
A row of buttons, open or closed
A henley with three buttons at the neck
Colin sizes from XS to 5XL
Bev said somebody looks after him
About the price
The Nigel is $86.95. It was $174.00. The Colin is $56.95. It was $114.00. Prices like that make me suspicious. I spent 28 years handing people boxes, and you learn a lot about a company from which boxes come back the other way. So I read the whole page looking for the catch, and I have not found one. They came with free shipping, they looked like the pictures, and neither one is going back.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these come in small runs and the good colors and sizes do not stay in stock long. Their words, not mine.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots. The same things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
If there is a man in your family who lost the one who shopped for him, and he has been wearing down the pile ever since, this is where I would start. Take a look before this run sells through, because once it is gone, it is gone. And if you are ever at the marina cafe on Grand Lake and a man in a rust cardigan comes in off the dock, tell Eldon that Connie said thank you. Then let him eat his pie.
Connie
THE NIGEL & THE COLIN
The Colin: $114.00 $56.95
- Nigel: button cardigan with a stand collar
- Full button front, open or closed
- Raised texture, small chest badge
- Colin: long sleeve henley with a buttoned placket
- Round neck, plain solid color
- Nigel S to 2XL, Colin XS to 5XL
- Eight men’s tops in the collection
- Free shipping
Sale on now, half off. Once this run is gone, it is gone.