Prepared

She wore a cardigan year round. The worst would have been to die of "un chaud et un froid" (a spell of "hot and cold").

She worried about drafty places and sudden changes in the weather. She needn't have worried; Dunkirk is windy and rainy nine months out of the year.

Every three or four years, she'd knit herself a new hat and gloves and perhaps a cardigan.

She wore a man's scarf over her raincoat, a plastic protector over her hat and zippered boots that hugged her calves. She fastened steel clamps to the sole of her shoes during ice storms, never forgot her handkerchief and her house key.

Her key ring held a miniature replica of a rubber boot, an old gift from a shoe salesman. She kept her coinpurse in her coat pocket where no thief would reach. There never was a thief to be found on the "rue de la Republique" (Republic Street). Still, she was prepared.