The Wedding Announcement

1966

Westport, CT

Miriam Lyman heard the wooden floor behind her creak. She put her book aside and turned to look at the little boy she knew she would find, his walk and the sound it made was unmistakable. At five years old Joshua Lyman already swaggered; it was a walk befitting a child who was his family's little prince, spoiled and adored by all.

In his small hands there was a large leather bound book.

"What have you got there, Joshua?"

"It's one of your scrapbooks, Nana," he said, lifting the book higher in order to give his grandmother a better look.

Miriam adjusted her glasses.

"So it is."

Miriam inspected the cover after Josh handed the scrapbook over to her.

"This one starts in 1924, a very memorable year," Miriam told her grandson.

"How long ago was that?" he asked as he clambered up onto the sofa and made himself comfortable beside his grandmother.

"Forty-two years ago."

"That's a really long time ago."

"Are you trying to make me feel old, Joshua?"

Josh's eyes widened and he shook his head, vehemently denying that that had been his intention, his red-brown curls bouncing as he did so.

Miriam smiled at her grandson so that he'd know she had only been teasing. Josh favored his grandmother with a smile of his own, complete with dimples.

"Can we look inside, please?"

"Of course," Miriam answered as she placed the book on her lap and opened it.

On the very first page of the scrapbook there was a large newspaper clipping. The tightly-packed words that covered the clipping looked more difficult than the ones Joanie was teaching Josh to read from "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge"*. Josh was very proud of being able to read what little he could manage thus far and he was hesitant to ask for help. However, his desire to know what the newspaper said outweighed his embarrassment over not being able to read the whole thing by himself.

"Nana, what does that part say?" Josh asked, pointing at the article with the boldest headline that contained some names that were very familiar to Josh.

Miriam placed her finger under the first word so that her grandson would be able to follow her as she read.

"To Wed Tonight

Under a Floral Bell

Miriam Levy to Become

Bride of David Lyman"

"Wed?"

"That means to get married. Wed, like the word wedding."

"They talked about your wedding in the newspaper?"

"That's right," Miriam said, a smile she couldn't contain spreading across her face as she recalled her reaction when she had first seen her wedding announcement printed in the paper. She had been a silly girl then, Miriam thought, at twenty she had been unable to hide her glee when she had noticed that Anna Cockrell, who was the daughter of a former United States Senator and had been Miriam's rival in high school, had her wedding announcement right beside Miriam's and it wasn't even half the size of the announcement for the Levy-Lyman wedding. Miriam had even suspected that Anna's Mr. Coromilas hadn't been interested in women, but she'd known to hold her tongue regarding such matters.