the bridal shower (m)

My cousin D and I were best friends growing up.  She lived one street away and I would meet her on the corner of her street every morning and we would walk to school together.  We did this for 8 years. 

Her family had a summer cottage down the Cape and owned and operated a variety store where they sold basic groceries (bread, milk, eggs, butter), toys (pails, shovels, comic books), penny candy (with about 50 different types of penny candy--I worked this section most and ate those tri-color coconut strips and malted milk balls until I was about to vomit) and a submarine sandwich section.  At nights, Uncle Patsy made pizzas.  The line was out the door and around the block.

This is where I spent every summer for about ten years.  My mother would send me down the Cape in late June and I would come home in August.  Once, they renovated my home and I was totally disoriented when I got back ("where's the living room?", I remember asking). 

It struck me as amazing that the days on the beach could be hot and sunny and the nights so cool we pulled the quilts up to our faces.  I remember Ain't No Mountain High Enough blasting on the radio while we made subs for all the beachgoers. 

This was one of the happiest times of my life.  The family laughed alot and was so much fun to be around.

It was short-lived.

D's parents died young...in their 40's.  The father suffered a massive heart attack and the mother died of breast cancer just two years later.  They left 4 children, aged 8 years to 17 years.

Right after that, this formerly "golden family" was thrown into turmoil.  Aunts and uncles stepped up to help raise them.  The two eldest girls, D and M, married extremely young. 

By the time I was in my first year at Wharton, D had her first child.  I remember boarding the train at Penn Station to go home to visit my cousin and her beautiful little girl.  The visit was bittersweet as it was clear we were headed in very different directions in life.

Fast forward the tape to today....the bridal shower for D's daughter, L.  L is lovely...tall, thin, brilliant.  Summa cum laude from Dartmouth.  Stanford MBA.  Works for a Private Equity firm in Boston.  Fiance is handsome, kind and successful.  I couldn't be happier for them, all of them.

The luncheon was beautiful.  I stayed away from the pastries, ate fruit and salad and chicken and even threw myself wholeheartedly into the Shower Bingo game (like bingo, but instead of calling numbers, they say "toaster" and you mark the spot on your card).  I patiently helped Aunt Y play the game even though she can't hear, can't see that well, and couldn't grasp the concept ("why is your card different than mine?").  I just marked x's on her card and she was happy.

When dessert came, D and I went together to get dessert for my mother and the aunts.  There was a chocolate mousse bar with toppings.  They looked just like some of the penny candy I used to sell/eat.

D turned to me and smiled.

We've come full circle.