It was April, l985 when thick eyebrows and big hair were in.  The bride wore a hoop-skirted-puffy- sleeved-lace-embellished dress, having little in common with her “dream gown” of that era which was laden with tulle, taffeta and violets.  She kept a picture of that dress folded away in a dresser drawer since she was l6 and started dreaming of marriage.  The problem was she dreamed of the wedding, dreamed of the day, but really didn’t dream much of the happily ever after.  It wasn’t that she didn’t desire a happily ever after life, it was just that she had never seen one.  Her own parents’ marriage was that of violent outbreaks, arguments and name calling peppered with very few days of peace in between.  Her friends’ parents were either unhappy or divorced.  She just didn’t see any happily ever after going on. So, she went about that wedding with “happy enough ever after” her hope. 

If having to settle on her dress didn’t foretell of the future you would think that the baby blue balloons and .  matches imprinted with their names would.  She had wanted flowers, lot of beautiful fragrant colorful blossoms that scream of spring.  And she had wanted a beautiful diamond ring, but settled happy enough with the simple gold band.  And  the wedding of her dreams was a church wedding, not this ceremony on a ship her soon to be spouse had arrange.  In retrospect all the settling seemed to be  superficial declarations of who she would become.  And who she became soon enough  was someone’s ex wife.  A single mom with three children to support still resigned to a mediocre life. Who could blame her after the man who waited  underneath that baby’s breath covered archway on that ship years ago left her for a model in New York?   She settled into single parenthood proudly and “happy enough”.

That was until she met  him.  She never expected to encounter the likes of him…she didn’t even know someone that good and kind and decent still roamed the earth unattached at his age.  It started as an innocent flirtation.  That such a young man would flirt with her was flattering given that most  men recoiled in horror and fear once she told them about her children, practically making a beeline for the nearest exit..  But, not him. He smiled a big, giant  smile that said he wasn’t like the others and he wasn‘t afraid of any child. That’s when  she noticed that telltale sign of aging…the little lines that come from living and loving life. Never before had she found crow’s feet so attractive.