The Saga Continues...

When last we saw the thousand year old parents and their intrepid daughter... I'd told my parents that they couldn't go to a wedding in New Jersey because the old man was too frail. He was greatly disappointed. And although the old lady seemed to accept it, she was disappointed too.

This morning he called me and told me to take my mother all by herself. He would stay home and be OK. I said we will talk about it. He told me she really wanted to go. It was her last hurrah and he did not want her to miss it. He'd worked it out. She could go and have fun and he would stay home and sleep. Then he put her on the phone and she was so excited. "I can do it. It won't be so bad and they all want me to come! Iris was crying she wanted me to come." I said we would talk about it. I was trying to figure out where I could find money for the fares when I decided to call the mother of the groom, cousin Iris. She called back and I found out the real story. We talked a long time. The old lady does not hear very well in person, and even less well on the phone. Iris had told her that she would come to visit after the wedding and bring a video.

At four, I went over to pick them up to go shopping and out to eat. (The old man wants a new pair of pants.) The couch was covered with evening wear. I knew she was picking out her wedding outfit because before I talked to my cousin I thought about it, too, and decided to wear the dress I wore to another wedding. I sat them down and had an almost truthful discussion with them.

"Mom," I said, "you don't always hear well on the phone." I then told them that it was NOT going to be a big wedding like the one we went to last year. No big groom's dinner, no big day-after brunch, no band, very few relatives. Although it was at a country club, it was actually a golf club near a Marriott near a freeway. It was interesting to see them change their minds. I told them it was going to be more like my daughter's wedding, small and intimate. And suddenly it was over. They couldn't see going all the way out there for one day. "But the invitation was so fancy, who knew?"

At dinner the old lady told the old man she was going to keep one outfit out for the February birthday party at their assisted living facility. Then the waiter brought over some chocolate wontons for the 97 year old and all was right with the world.