Photo: A woman is looking for the darker dress seen on the left in this photo, worn by her sister and later sold at a garage sale.

A Chicago woman desperately wants to track down a dress sold at a garage sale about three years ago because it was worn by her late sister. Terry Almanza is hoping to buy back the dress in time to wear to her niece—her late sister's daughter—upcoming wedding this summer.

To find the plum-colored dress worn by sister Alicia Almanza at her wedding in 2008, Terry Almanza turned to social media to share a photo and her story. The dress changed hands in a garage sale at their mother's Mokena home a few years before Alicia died at 41 after a 22-year battle with a rare cancer. "She looked absolutely stunning in it," Almanza said. "I could have another dress made, but I want her dress."

Almanza and Alicia were best friends, Almanza said. Since her death in 2013, Almanza thinks of her often. "I feel her presence with me all the time," she said. "Even though she's gone, she's still everywhere."

Their Story At 18, Alicia was diagnosed with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma after a dentist spotted a small tumor in the roof of her mouth. Alicia learned the mass was cancer and had it surgically removed. At the time, her daughter Courtney was just 10 weeks old. Courtney's father died in a car accident when she was 10 months old.

Sharp pains in her left cheek struck six years later, leading to a diagnosis of cancer in her sinus cavity. Alicia underwent surgery to remove part of her jaw and cheekbone.



This time, the mass was labeled as adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). The slow-growing, rare cancer mainly strikes the head and neck areas, occurs mostly in women, is usually diagnosed when people are in their 40s to 60s and has no known treatment. The cancer crawled into her lungs, brain, and spine, rendering her paralyzed before her death on Christmas Day 2013, two years premature of her daughter's wedding.