A Story for Later

As I'm sure I've mentioned, last week was all about Granny getting married. My mother in law is a beautiful fifty seven year old woman who was widowed some five years ago after her husband was struck down by a brain tumor. New Dad is a sixty three year old widower who lost both his wife and his legs to diabetes. As is common in a small town, there are lots of people with opinions about this union. Here's mine: when two intelligent adults fall in love and want to publicly make a commitment to one another, it's cause for celebration.

The wedding itself was all about family. Hubby and his brother were to give their mom away. Her two sisters were the bridesmaids; our girl and her cousin, the flowergirls and boychild was the ring bearer. At the rehearsal the night before we met New Dad's two sons who would be the ushers and his best friend, the best man. The minister felt it very important that there be someone in position as mother of the bride as this person is seated last and makes life a little easier for the organist. In a fun bit of role reversal, that job was assigned to me.

So, the big day came and we went up to Granny's house to get everyone ready. It all went very smoothly. Granny had assigned seating in the vehicles, so boychild got to ride with the men in his uncle's jeep and our girl went with the other princesses in the love bug. I was the chauffeur for the ladies. We waited a few minutes after everyone else left and then drove to the church.

As we were driving along we were chatting and laughing about the balloons wilting in the heat and Granny said, "Well, if anything goes wrong now, it'll be a story for later". When we arrived at the church, I was surprised to see a lot of people milling around outside. They appeared to be looking for something. I parked the car and we asked what was going on...

Boychild had lost the ring.

We searched for a few minutes and then Granny decided it was time to get married and she'd just turn her engagement ring around and we'd worry about the wedding band later. We were reluctant, Granny was insistent, so away we went. I was seated and then the flower girls came up the aisle, followed by the boychild who was trying to smile despite the fact that he was bearing only one ring.

When the bridesmaid got into position at the front of the church, she reached over and plucked something out of our girl's basket, turned to me and whispered, "found it!" She then passed the ring to the boychild who sighed and beamed at me with such relief that the whole church laughed aloud.

That laugh set the tone for the wedding and I hope that Granny and New Dad laugh their way through a long and happy marriage. I also hope that they tell this story at boychild's wedding.