A sentimental cosmopolitan bride in style, the dress was a sleek white satin sheath, cinched in at the waist with a soft Japanese style obi. Her hair was Audrey Hepburn pixie cut and a creamy white orchid was tucked behind the ear. The wedding bouquet was dazzling in its delicacy. It reminded me of an arrangement gently gathered from a Grandmother's garden; the delicate soft pink shades of antique roses; coral schizostylis; sprigs of lily-of-the-valley and white snowberries. A delicate sky blue forget-me-not was tucked into the bouquet as a remembrance of her father who could not be there that day.
He had died of cancer six months prior and while the bride helped her mother pack up his books, clothes, tools, and fishing poles to give away to charity, she kept one piece behind. He had worn it to celebrate some of her families most cherished moments; birthdays, holidays, graduations and weddings. He had worn it to some of the most painful and cruel family losses; funerals, federal court, job interviews and hospital visits.
Best of all it still smelled like him and on this day, her wedding day, she wrapped his favorite red and blue striped tie around the stems of her bouquet. Tears splashed down on the delicate petals of the soft roses, as the bride gazed down at the tie and her father's cologne wrapped around her. Everyone was crying now, touched by the loss and memories evoked by the gesture.
The groom was having his own emotional strength tested. Dressed in a single breasted charcoal grey suit with a crisp white shirt and pinned on the notched lapel was a butter yellow orchid boutonniere. He was wearing his father's navy and grey striped gold tie and family heirloom gold cuff links. His father had just passed away from cancer too...one month ago.
Struggling to control his face as the tie was slipped on and tightened by his mother, he finally gave up the fight and broke down crying. Mother and son hugged tightly to each other as the wave of emotions swept through them. Friends standing by turned away to give them this last peaceful moment before the emotional wedding festivities begun.
The simple tenderness in remembering the two fathers in this wedding pulled on everyone heartstrings. The fathers had deeply cherished their families and the hole they had left behind was still healing. There was a sense of life's fragility and the importance of being thankful for being alive and in love.
The two fathers were "present" in the church that day...they were "sitting" in the front pews with their families. Where there is love, the impossible will happen and it would have been impossible not to have them there on the wedding day with their son and daughter.
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