My Mother met my Dad on her wedding day. She was head over heels in love with his picture. Her own Mother had slid it under her nose one day out of the blue and she caught sight of the jet black hair and mercurial smile. She said yes to his picture for the rest of her life. It was just a picture not his flesh and blood.
Her parents went to meet him and his parents at their home. They didn’t bring my Mother in case the sight of her might put him off. He was 25 years older than she was with lots of experience. He was good with animals they said. Anyone who had a sick animal would go to him and he could look after it.
My Mother wore the most beautiful powder blue wedding suit and coat she had borrowed from her cousin. Her Mother, my Grandmother had nearly torn her hair out getting the house ready for the wedding breakfast for after the ceremony. She smashed a glass on the floor and screamed with the frustration at the pressure of it all.
My Mother stepped into the wedding car with her Father at the wheel and asked him which Church it was they were going to with a nervous smile. She had spent the last precious moments of preparations writing a letter to her groom. She had poured her heart out into that letter and it remained there on those pages where she gave herself over to loving him to the fullest.
She thought this day would transform her as she crossed the threshold at lightning speed with her Father’s arm wrapped around hers. It turns out she was right. He turned and at that moment she knew. He couldn’t look at her. Her parents smiled in embarrassment. She tried to hand him her heartfelt letter and he took it and held it crumpled by his side. She ran.
She realised quickly that she had no place to go to to take refuge. So she went home to clean up the failed wedding banquet. As she was washing the dishes she suddenly noticed a note had been left on the sill in the sunlight in front of her. Here was her letter returned with an invitation to meet him that night down by the brook. She blushed as she read.
This was how she came to know my Father and learn a few things about him. After their tryst he left town for good.
She often remembered wandering into the kitchen for a sandwich and catching sight of her Mother standing alone tensed slightly with her ear cocked. She looked so at peace in ecstasy. It was as though there was something happening right then and there in front of her eyes. As she heard the names of people on the radio it was like she was listening to waves crashing against rocks.
She was waiting to hear my Father’s name. She still waits.