Wedding Day

August 1, 2008

Dear Les, Tommy, and Becky:

The following story is a quick look into my memory:

Dressed in a long white dress adorned with lace and pearls and a long flowing train, she looked up at her father who had always been the most important man in her life.

“It's not too late to back out, Baby,” he says in a whisper.

But she knows it is. She is afraid to continue on yet knows she could never embarrass her mother by backing out at this late date.

“It'll be okay daddy. It's time to go now.” she says as she gives her father a kiss. They begin the longest walk of all time down the aisle of the old country church beginning the rest of her life.

Much preparation had gone into this eventful day. There was a trip to Jackson to choose patterns and material for the wedding dress. She had seen her dream dress, but knew it would cost a fortune they didn't have to spend on that much material. Instead she knew her mother had lived her entire life wishing she could have planned her own wedding this way. The bride and groom really didn't want such a big affair, but Mama would have been so disappointed. This would be Mama's day to shine. Why not let her plan it from top to bottom just the way she wanted?

And that is exactly the way it was done. Mama picked out the patterns, the material, the flowers...The bride only specified one thing and that was to at least have yellow in the color scheme because that was Old Gramp's favorite color.

She really wanted the church to smell like gardenias, her favorite smell in the world. Mama wanted gladiolus and so it was. The flowers were beautiful as was the rest of the wedding even though Mama almost had a hissyfit when she found out the groom and all the groomsmen intended to wear cowboy boots....new ones granted, but COWBOY BOOTS?

The new couple moved into an apartment that cost them $50.00 a month...a lot of money when your total income was $147.00 a month. It was hot, hot, hot...no air conditioners, no money for a fan...but they lived. There were happy for a long time.

They had three precious children over time and if she had only known more then, been more self confident she could have made some stronger decisions when it would have made a difference. No matter she will always regret not having tried harder to open up to professionals about his drinking and maybe even signing him in to a rehab. Perhaps history would have been changed.

Hind sight is always 20/20 I guess.

Thirty eight years ago on August 1, 1970 I married your daddy...

I loved him then and I love him now. I just wanted my three reasons for living to know.

I LOVE YOU,
Mama