CONFESSION AND LIES WEDNESDAY!

In honor of the season of weddings coming up, here is a wedding story you will never forget!

WHAT A WEDDING!

            Weddings are usually joyous occasions.  Of course there is cousin Irma who gets drunk and hits on the best man or Uncle Al who brings his accordion and insists on playing with the band. We all have relatives who embarrass or annoy us one way or another but must be invited to the wedding. But this should have been the sweetest wedding of all, the marriage of two people who had been neighbors and friends their whole lives and it was the most tense wedding I ever attended.

            Mary and Scott grew up practically next door to each other on Long Island. They were also best friends with my first husband, Ken, and Scott’s sister, Anne. The four of them hung out together, went to school together, teased each other, consoled each other…were inseparable.

            Perhaps it would be odd if Mary and Scott didn’t fall in love and decide to get married after Scott graduated college. Ken and I were practically newlyweds finishing up our first year of marriage and still in love with the idea of weddings, marriage and all the familiar clichés. So when Scott asked Ken to be his best man, we were thrilled.

            In the months leading up to the wedding we went along as we usually did, hanging out with Mary and Scott whenever they were available. We moved to New York City while they remained on Long Island so we didn’t spend as much time together as we would have liked.
          About four months before the wedding in June, the information that would destroy the sweetness of this wedding came down on our heads.

            The husband of the groom, Scott’s dad, Harold, was having an affair with the mother of the bride, Sandy, who was also Scott’s mom’s best friend. Wow! Ken was devastated. Ken’s family was dysfunctional, so Scott’s mom and dad had become second parents to him. He lived as much at their house growing up as at his own. He was much closer to Margaret, Scott’s mom, than to his own mother and felt Harold’s betrayal of her keenly. Mary was embarrassed to talk about it. Her father was in the process of divorcing her mother. We wondered what would happen once Sandy was free.  

          Still, the wedding was going to go on. After much scurrying around and rearranging, the reception was planned for the children, meaning us twenty-somethings only. No one felt comfortable about what could happen if the parents got a few drinks under their belts and no one relished a fist fight at a wedding reception, especially one between the mother of the groom and the mother of the bride!

          Ken was given the job of watching Margaret and if she caused any trouble, he was to escort her out toute de suite. He was a nervous wreck before the wedding and both of us regretted not having a little drink before the ceremony but there was none available.

            I got to watch everything unfolding from the front pew, sitting with the groom’s family. I’ll never forget watching the mother of the bride being escorted down the aisle. A hush fell on the room when the mother of the groom appeared. While we all knew, none of the older relatives were aware. It was still a big secret.

            I watched Margaret come down the aisle with Harold, both looking very stiff and sit directly across the aisle from Sandy, without making eye contact with her. While the bride was beautiful, those of us who knew what was going on were watching Margaret and Sandy, where the real drama was taking place.

            I hate to disappoint you, but Margaret behaved coolly but with dignity and Ken never had to take her in hand. The wedding reception was fun but a strange celebration without the parents of the bride or the groom.

            Not long after Ken and I got a divorce, three years later, Scott showed up at my apartment unannounced and hit on me. I was shocked and disappointed in him. Of course, I turned him down. I guess the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree. 



A little bit about Sunny Days, Moonlit Nights 
Do you have someone in your past you would like to reconnect with?  Caroline Davis White wasn't looking for Mickey, now Mike Foster, her childhood crush, she was fleeing her philandering husband, seeking peace and quiet, time to reflect on changing her life. But there was Mike, saving her from a mishap...again, bigger than life and even more handsome. 

A well-known artist, Sunny thought she could escape, disappear back to the cabin where she spent her summers as a child. But she was wrong. Her husband refused to let her go. There hadn't been a divorce in Brad White's family...ever! And he wasn't about to start breaking the tradition now.  Could Caroline shake him loose and what about Mike? Where did he fit into her life?

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