Flashback Thursday

Ordinarily I would be flashing back on Friday, but it's appropriate for me to flashback today. I'm flashing back to this day 31 years ago - almost at this exact time - when my friend next door got married and I was the maid of honor; in fact, it the only time that I've been asked to be a maid of honor in someone's wedding, or even be in someone's wedding. But I digress. You know how old I am, so you can do the math and figure out I was a 16 year-old maid of honor. The bride was 16 years old, too, and 5 months pregnant.

We'd been friends since I was old enough to have a friend, living next door to each other. I was the first person she told about being pregnant, and I was also the first person she told when she said she was getting married. Let me tell you - that's some pretty heavy life things to tell a 16 year old kid. But I supported her and helped her all I could, and it when she asked me to be her maid of honor in her wedding, I knew it was something that I had to do to show my support. The wedding was in the late evening, just about at the time I'm typing this, and the weather was just about as hot as is it right now. I remember every detail about the wedding. The ceremony was outdoors at the bride's aunt and uncle's farm house, two houses down the street from us. The bride wore a long-sleeved white lace long dress, and her husband wore a navy blue suit with a pale blue shirt. I wore a white and red print sun dress with matching short-sleeved jacket and red high heels. I still have a few of the flowers in my boquet pressed together in a big thick book.

I remember standing there, along side the bride's brother who was the best man, thinking how she and her husband-to-be both looked like little kids playing dress up. I also remember her family and friends saying that their marriage wouldn't last. And today they celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary.

We don't see each other much - maybe a couple of times a year if she's next door visiting her parents and we see each other as we're both outside. But she found me on Facebook the other day and sent a friend request, and that brought back a lot of memories, especially about her wedding.