Wedding Talk

Anna bought a new Barbie yesterday, and it's wearing a beautiful wedding dress. This morning she is sitting in my bed showing me all the details of the doll and we are talking a bit about weddings. I asked if the doll has a name (Anna has never been very interested in assigning names. Dogs tend to be called "puppy", rabbits " bunny", etc.). When she just looked at me I said "She needs a name so that when you are having a wedding you can say 'I Anna take you William to be my lawfully wedded husband'". Anna said "I always thought it was "waffly wedded husband!"

Also, yesterday we were looking at pictures of the weekend wedding of Princess Victoria of Sweden, and watched a bit of video from it. So we were discussing the bride being given away by her father. She asked why some brides walk down the aisle alone. I told her it might be because they don't have a father. Then I told her that when Grandma W. got married her parents had both died so a family friend walked her down the aisle. It brought back a memory of Mom to me...

Once Mom and I were out for a walk near the apartment I lived in. We were walking through a beautiful neighborhood in Bloomington, past a house on a very large, corner lot. I don't remember if Mom saw the owner working in the yard or saw their name on the mailbox, but somehow she realized this was the man who had walked her down the aisle! She had not seen him for many years, obviously - she hadn't even known where he lived. We ended up visiting with the couple in their home. Sadly, I haven't the faintest memory of their names. But I've always liked the idea that I spent some time with the man who walked my Mom down the aisle. I never knew my Mom's parents, so somehow this feels like a special link.