"They are all so beautiful" an astonished father
"Do they have an Xbox here?" a brother
"I thought they broke up" a glamorous girl, one of a dozen
"She must have tried on a hundred dresses" an exhausted mother
"I'll be glad when this is over, it's been too much pressure for her" another exhausted mother
"I drove you to yours, they are not all going to fit in that limo" an all-knowing grandmother
"click" the photographer
Her estranged husband arrived and a brief hush fell over the gathering,
or maybe only over her
He clomped proudly past her to their daughter who was standing in the throng by the pool
whose hair was all soft brown curls to her belly
her skin and eyes and lips were mostly bare
who was wearing
the first of only three dresses she had tried on -
a simple, lightly beaded, iridescent gown which made subtle shifts between green and purple
The girl looked goddess-like, radiant, stunning, happy truly happy
All eyes were on these two for a moment
They all knew
Some time later the crowd gasped
He had unknowingly ventured out onto the pool's winter cover,
as several others on the edge of the crowd had already done
He fell as only one holding a newly necessary cane,
with an unsteady and daily deteriorating gait,
and fearful truly fearful
can
She cried
helpless and alone
the first of many times
