In two novels I just read, characters died and the other characters would hold onto their clothing and sniff them because those clothes retained the specific odor of the dearly departed. This seems to be a fairly common narrative in books, television and movies.
I cannot relate to this. I detect no specific odor on my husband. He doesn’t wear any sort of cologne or aftershave, and isn’t attached to any particular brand of soap or anything else. If he were to pass I would not be digging through the hamper or hugging his pillow trying to “breathe in his scent.”
I suppose it could just be that my nose isn’t very attuned to this kind of subtlety.
Oh, yes. My husband is usually clean and cologned, but when he’s gotten mucky and sweaty, he has a distinct cedar-mineral scent. Like a freshly sharpened pencil.
By and large, no. Unless someone drenches themselves in perfume, or hasn’t bathed in eleven days, I’m pretty much unable to detect any scent or odor at all from people.
Once in a rare while, someone will have bad enough breath that I can smell it. For most people, as far as I can tell, breath is just air.
Ivylad wears Grey Flannel for special occasions, and that makes me weak in the knees. Sometimes I’ll sniff the bottle.
I do remember when he was on his six month Med run in the Navy, and I was home alone with a baby and a three year old. I was cleaning out the hall closet and came across his peacoat. I buried my face in it and the scent overwhelmed me, I was missing him so much.
I would say I don’t necessarily notice his scent when he’s around, but I do notice it when he’s not. And the Grey Flannel gets my engine running.
My husband is meticulously clean; he often showers more than once a day. And he never wears cologne. But not only can I identify his aroma, I can tell which part of his body it’s from. His t-shirts smell very different from his underwear.
I often switch pillows with him, especially when he’s out of town on business. I can totally identify with ivylass.
My wife is allergic to most scents so we are a scent-free household, but when I step into the bedroom hours after she’s been asleep, there is a scent, her scent, a warm soft smell they is uniquely her. I love it.
Just to be clear, what I (and I think, others) are talking about is the natural, pleasant aroma of a person’s skin and body, not a sweaty or stinky smell.
when my (now ex) husband was undergoing radiation treatment for cancer, his skin scent changed. Not a bad smell, just a different one. I mentioned it to the radiation oncologists, who were very interested in my report. ( well, at least they did not ridicule me!) It took about two years for his body chemistry to normalize and his usual scent to return. We were together for 35 years, split for 6 and I would bet you money I could still identify his scent on a tshirt accurately.
I’m very sensitive to smells, but I don’t know her smell. Given the OP’s setting though, if she were to pass I’m sure that I would see value in smelling her pillow, wardrobe, etc. as I reminisce about her.
My wife is always commenting on MY smell, however. I don’t detect it, but she loves it! I often hear her say, “I love the smell of you”. I don’t wear cologne and always choose scentless soap/detergent/shampoo. I’ve asked her what, specifically, she’s cluing into but she says it’s just “you”. I am a blessed man.
When my kids were small my sister used to send hand-me-downs to my daughter from her daughters. My kiddo could identify which of the three nieces a piece of clothing came from by smell.
I knew which of the nieces the clothes were from. My daughter passed the blind sniff test with 100% accuracy.
My daughter is also, I believe, a super-taster as I’ve learned here. Some of her senses are way more refined than mine apparently.
I have relatives who live overseas with such an incredibly specific smell. They’re very clean, and it’s a pleasant smell - sort of fruity and fresh - but I would recognize it anywhere.
Oh, that reminds me. As my daughter outgrew her newborn and baby clothing, I threw it in a plastic storage bin. When the bin was full, I put it in the attic for baby #2.
A couple years and five pregnancy losses later, we gave up on having a #2 and I got the bin down to sort through it. As soon as I pried off the lid I was hit with the odor of my newborn daughter–an odor she no longer has. Yeah, I cried.
The recognition and memory of scent is a fascinating thing. Two years ago I traveled to Lima. I had not been there in 40 years. I lived there for most of my first five years and then again between age eight and ten. As soon as we left the airport, I remembered things via scent alone. My aunts house still smelled the same, as did she.
I would recognize my guy’s scent anywhere. I love it. If I could bottle it, I would.
