I Asked My Grandmother to Walk Down the Aisle at My Wedding — My Family Demands That I Apologize for It
Just days before her wedding, Leah discovers that her grandmother didn’t have a wedding. Unable to sleep due to her grandmother having missed her opportunity, Leah wants her grandparents to have their moment and walk down the aisle. Instead of it playing out as Leah plans, she has to deal with a grandmother in a wedding dress, an embarrassed grandfather, and livid family members. Did she ruin her own wedding just to give her grandmother a memory?
“Tell me about your wedding, Gran,” I asked, rocking back and forth on the porch swing. The night was quiet, and we were a week away from my wedding.
A person sitting on a porch swing | Source: Midjourney
All I wanted to do was soak up the time I had left with my grandmother because once we were married, Nate and I would be moving away.
“Oh, honey, there wasn’t really a wedding. Your grandfather always promised, but it never happened,” she smiled, her eyes distant.
A smiling old woman | Source: Pexels
“Never?” I asked, frowning.
My grandmother shook her head.
“No. He didn’t even propose, Leah,” she said. “He always said that we’d get around to it eventually, but life just kept getting in the way. We raised our kids, took care of the house, and before I knew it, decades had passed.”
A woman washing dishes | Source: Unsplash
“But you are married, right?” I asked, trying to understand why my grandmother’s words felt like such a blow to me.
“Married, yes. Your grandfather took me down to the courthouse, and we signed away our single lives. He didn’t ask me; he just said that it was going to happen. And it did.”
The exterior of a court house | Source: Unsplash
My heart ached for her.
“But you wanted one, right? A wedding, I mean,” I pressed.
Her smile was wistful.
“I did, but I let go of that dream a long time ago. Now, come on, I’ll make you some hot chocolate before you leave.”
Two mugs of hot chocolate | Source: Midjourney
Later that night, when I went back home to my fiancé, I couldn’t sleep at all. My grandmother’s words replayed in my mind, and I felt a deep sadness for her unfulfilled dream.
By morning, I had an idea. It seemed perfect. To me, everything was good. Everything made sense.
A woman lying in bed | Source: Unsplash
“Nate, can I run something by you?” I asked my fiancé over breakfast.
He nodded, looking up at me and smiling.
“What if Grandma walked down the aisle at our wedding?” I asked.
Eggs and bacon in a frying pan | Source: Midjourney
“Leah, what on earth do you mean?” he asked, sipping his coffee.
I sat across from him, nibbling on some toast, and I told him everything that my grandmother told me the previous night.
A man holding a mug | Source: Unsplash
“So, you’re saying that you want your grandmother to walk down the aisle in a wedding dress?”
“Yes,” I said, getting more excited by the idea. “We could get her a simple dress and some flowers. And she could walk down the aisle. It would be like giving her a piece of the wedding she never had.”
Nate smiled at me, the smile reaching his eyes.
An old woman in a wedding dress | Source: Midjourney
“Leah, what on earth do you mean?” he asked, sipping his coffee.
I sat across from him, nibbling on some toast, and I told him everything that my grandmother told me the previous night.
A man holding a mug | Source: Unsplash
“So, you’re saying that you want your grandmother to walk down the aisle in a wedding dress?”
“Yes,” I said, getting more excited by the idea. “We could get her a simple dress and some flowers. And she could walk down the aisle. It would be like giving her a piece of the wedding she never had.”
Nate smiled at me, the smile reaching his eyes.
An old woman in a wedding dress | Source: Midjourney
A hanging garment bag | Source: Midjourney
She gasped quietly, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Oh, sweetheart, I couldn’t…”
“Yes, you can,” I said firmly, handing her a bouquet of flowers. “I know that you’re married to Grandpa already, but this is part of your dream. Let’s make it happen.”
A bouquet of flowers | Source: Unsplash
She hugged me tightly, nodding against my ear. I asked another one of my bridesmaids to take my grandmother to one of the other dressing rooms so that she could take in the moment for herself.
Next, I asked for my grandfather to come to my dressing room.
A bride in a dressing room | Source: Pexels
“Grandpa, we’re going to have Grandma walk down the aisle today. Like a bride, okay? You guys can have your moment. And it will be beautiful because we get to share the day.”
He snorted, immediately dismissive.
An upset old man | Source: Pexels
“Leah, that’s ridiculous,” he said. “At our age? It’s more a mockery than anything else.”
I was taken aback by his reaction.
“But it’s something that Gran has always wanted.”
Instead, he waved me off.
“I’m not interested, Leah. We are here for your wedding. That’s it.”
An old man holding a cane | Source: Pexels
Despite his refusal, the ceremony proceeded. I knew that I should have tried to convince him harder, but there wasn’t any time.
As the music started, my grandmother stepped onto the aisle, with me watching her from behind.
“It’s okay,” I told her before. “You just do it alone if you have to. Walk to Nate, and then you can take a seat at the front. And then it will be my turn to walk to my future husband.”
A groom | Source: Unsplash
There was confusion when Gran started walking down the aisle, especially because she wasn’t walking toward my grandfather, but to Nate instead.
As she walked, guests gasped, unable to comprehend what was going on.
My grandfather’s face turned red, and he stood up abruptly. He looked me straight in the eye as he stormed out of the venue.
An old man with his mouth open | Source: Pexels
I felt a pang of guilt but quickly refocused my attention on my grandmother, who had hugged Nate and was beaming with joy.
When she sat down, my entrance music began, and I walked down the aisle bursting with love for Nate. I hadn’t expected him to be okay with any of it, but the fact that he was just made everything more magical.
“Hey there,” he said as he took my hand when I reached the altar.
A couple at the altar | Source: Midjourney
The rest of the ceremony went off without any hiccups, and whenever I turned to look at my Gran, she had her little handkerchief in her hands ready to dab her eyes.
But then, everything changed after the ceremony.
It started with my nephew crashing into the table holding the champagne glasses, leaving glass everywhere.
Shattered glass | Source: Pexels
And then, instead of my family coming to me and throwing confetti on Nate and myself in celebration, they did the exact opposite.
My parents pulled me aside, my mother tugging harshly at my arm.
“What were you thinking, Leah?” she hissed. “You embarrassed your grandfather with that childish stunt. Why does it always have to be about you?”
An angry woman | Source: Pexels
“It wasn’t about me!” I protested. “It was about Grandma and her dream. She deserved this moment as much as I did. As much as you did when you got married, too.”
“And what about your grandfather?” my father chimed in, flagging down a waiter with canapes as he spoke. “You made a good old fool of him.”
But it didn’t stop there.
An angry man | Source: Pexels
My relatives kept coming up to me, agreeing with my parents. They didn’t even allow me to eat my first meal with Nate as his wife or have our first dance together.
It was all about them and how they thought that I had ruined my grandfather’s mood, and was it worth it?
“Of course, it’s worth it!” I told my mother’s sister when she slid into the chair next to me. “Anything for Gran!”
“It’s okay,” Nate said, as he pulled me into his arms, my tears threatening to escape.
A bridal couple standing together | Source: Pexels
“Did I ruin our wedding?” I asked him.
“You did no such thing,” he reassured me. “I’ll get the car, we can go to the hotel. We’ll take your grandmother, too. I’ve seen how everyone has been circling her.”
Later that night, I sat with my grandmother in her hotel room. Nate had booked her a room for the night.
A parked black car | Source: Pexels
“Spend time with her,” he said. “Let her know that you truly meant today as a way of healing her. She needs to know that. You can come to me later.”
“Did I do the right thing?” I asked, my voice trembling.
I knew that in my heart, I had done the right thing, but it was the way everyone else reacted.
My grandmother took my hand, her eyes full of gratitude.
Two woman sitting together | Source: Pexels
“You gave me a moment I never thought I’d have, Leah. Thank you, darling.”
Her words comforted me, but the rift with my family remained. They demanded that I apologize to my Grandpa, who doesn’t want to see me.
All I knew is that I cannot bring myself to regret giving Grandma her moment.
A smiling woman sitting on a bed | Source: Pexels
What do you think? Did I do the right thing?
Betty, Dublin Zoo’s longest resident and oldest chimp in human care, dead at 62 — rest in peace
Betty, the chimpanzee that had been at the Dublin Zoo for the longest and the oldest living chimp under human care, passed away last week at the age of 62. She was one of the zoo’s most cherished and well-known inmates.
A zoo blog article claims that Betty had age-related ailments that were impairing her quality of life, and the tough choice to end her life was made to spare her from suffering in the future.
Although it is heartbreaking to lose Betty, she enjoyed a lengthy life that exceeded the average lifespan of a chimpanzee in captivity. According to the zoo, she was also the oldest chimpanzee in human care at the time of her death.
Team leader Helen Clarke Bennett of Dublin Zoo, who has worked as a zookeeper since 1987 and has known Betty for many years, paid tribute to her.
In 1964, a West African chimpanzee named Betty made her way to Dublin. Bennett notes that Betty participated in archaic practices like “Chimp Tea Parties” and that the Dublin Zoo continued to operate in the “style of the early Victorian era zoos” throughout that period.
Betty saw major advancements in zoo standards throughout her decades-long confinement. For example, in the 1990s, the chimp habitat was transformed from a metal-barred concrete “pit” to an island with trees.
Bennett claimed to have known Betty since the zoo’s early years since Michael Clarke, Betty’s father, was looking after her at the time. The chimp was “always strong-minded,” according to him, and would not give up on her goals.
After Wendy moved in 1964, Betty’s best friend, Wendy, became an integral part of her life for the majority of it. One of the cutest pairs in the zoo was formed by the two monkeys.
“Wendy had a cheeky side, but Betty could hold her accountable!” Bennett penned the piece. “When Wendy was obstinately refusing to go outside while the habitat was being cleaned, Betty putting her arm around her to encourage her to go outside with the rest of the troop will always be one of my favorite pictures.”
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Betty and Wendy celebrated their 50th birthdays together in 2012 at the zoo. The zoo workers believed that Betty, who was devastated by Wendy’s death in 2014, wouldn’t be far behind.
She even managed to live on for a further ten years, rising to the rank of dominating female chimpanzee and earning the title of longest-serving inhabitant of the zoo.
Bennett stated that Betty experienced reduced kidney function and chronic arthritis in her latter years, which affected her weight and mobility. She was also under continuous wellness management.
They had to make the tough but humane decision to end the beloved chimp’s life after all medicinal and surgical alternatives had been tried. Even though Betty is no longer with us, she will always be cherished as a unique original and a zoogoer’s favorite for many decades to come.
“Although I am really saddened to bid farewell to a friend I have known since I was a young child, I am sure that Betty’s euthanasia was the right choice, ensuring that she didn’t suffer needlessly and preserving her dignity to the very end. That gives me a great deal of comfort,” Bennett wrote.
“Everyone here at Dublin Zoo as well as the many generations of visitors who were fortunate enough to know her will miss Betty terribly; there will never be another like her.”
Peace be with you, Betty. You lived a very long life, and it’s obvious that your loved ones and caregivers cherished you.
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