Today I saw a post on FB from a friend who just lost a bestie to cancer. These two ladies met at a bereavement group as raw young widows. They became friends and supported each other at the worst time of their lives. One of them remarried. The other died from cancer. Life is not fair, life just is. Below is the story of the wedding, the happier of the two endings. We are on this earth for a blink, let’s try and enjoy it.
April 2019: We just attended a wedding. People our age (or so) who had both lost their spouses in the last few years. They met at bereavement group, became friends, became more, became married. Attending a wedding of people of a certain age is enchanting. Everyone is comfortable in their skin, no spray tans or 6 inch heals. Vows are wise and funny. Mistakes happen and they are laughed off. Butterflies are to fly out of a beautiful silver box representing the new beginning… but when the box is opened they are in individual glassine envelopes, looking very dead. We wait and watch as the bride opens an envelope with hope. We applaud in relief as the butterfly flies in a circle and lands on the brides dress… keeping her company for a bit. The groom hands out butterfly envelopes and it soon becomes an interactive experience, a community. A happy surprise that would have left a young bride in tears. We watch as the friends from the bereavement group dance, dance so big, so hard, so full of life. They dance for the happiness of their friend who found a new start, they dance for the partners they lost, they dance because they can. I could not get on the dance floor with my guy, it felt selfish. Looking back of course we should have danced with the widows. No wasted moments. Life is short. Weddings always teach us to remember who we love, a renewal of why we are with the ones we are with. This one reminded me to live.
Swooning 