A Summer Wedding

I’m invited to a wedding this summer. Nothing special about that as it is after all wedding season. What’s special about this one is that the blushing bride is Edith, a relative who celebrated her 67^th birthday this spring. George, the handsome groom, is 68 years old. Both lost their mates along the way, but when they met just over a year ago, they were not entirely strangers.

            I remember that last year Edith got an invitation to attend a reunion at her old high school to mark the 100^th anniversary of its founding. She wanted to go but hesitated because she would have to go alone and because she had given up going out socially almost entirely after her husband passed away. However, after much hesitation, curiosity got the best of her. What would her old classmates look like? How successful and happy had they been, etc. Most of all she wanted to know what happened to Mary, her old rival for boys in their senior year.

            As Edith recounted to me later, she found the first few moments awkward when she stepped inside the old gym for the first time in decades. She realized she wasn’t the only curious one because all eyes had turned in her direction! Soon Mary came to greet her. Sister Mary for some forty years. The two women had a lot to talk about, and at some point Mary got George’s attention as he went by. He had been a source of conflict between the two women, but that evening there was only friendship in the air.

            After the reunion, George insisted he and Edith keep in touch. The get-togethers turned into dates, and love blossomed. Edith told me she did not believe it was possible to fall in love at her age. That she is in love, there is no doubt. The excitement in her eyes cannot hide the fact.

            She says that inside she still feels as she did when she was 20 years old. The only difference she sees is that the outside shell shows some wear and tear. The wedding will be a small affair with the family and a few friends. I’m sure no one will notice any wear and tear. Like every other couple in love, they will both be beautiful.