Three Times a Bridesmaid

I did the unthinkable, something that my mother had warned me about. "You're never going to get married now. You're doomed!" she hastily told me as soon as I confessed that I agreed to be in my best friend's upcoming wedding.

Doomed seemed like such a harsh word. I know my mother means well, but she forgets that sometimes her opinions are better left unsaid. It wasn't fair for her to try to take away the hope that someday I would find an almost-perfect man and get married. But, in one short phone call, she did. She believed I had done the unthinkable thing: agreed to be a bridesmaid again. It would be my third time as a bridesmaid, and everyone knows what that means-especially my mother.

"Three times a bridesmaid-never a bride," my mother pointed out, matter-of-factly.

"It's a cliché," I told her, frustrated at her negativity.

"A very worn-out cliché at that."

"No, it's not! Look at your Great-Aunt Edna," she said, quickly trying to come up with evidence to support this well-believed cliché to which she wildly clings.

Everyone knew that Great-Aunt Edna had been a bridesmaid three times. And she died, single and alone.

Well, not totally alone. She had eight cats.

"She was the richest person in our family. She lived like a queen," I retorted, remembering her expensive house and car. As a child, it seemed like a castle. And it probably would still seem that way. As we grow up, some things seem smaller. Even the world around us seems to shrink in size. But not Great-Aunt Edna's house; of that, I was convinced.

"But, you know, money isn't everything," my mother replied - another of her famous clichés.

"You're wrong, Mom; money is everything. In a way, it really is," I told her. I looked around my tiny studio apartment, which when compared to the size of my cat and her litter box, makes me feel like my area is just about that same size. Except of course I have furniture, and television. Truthfully, I will be the first to admit that money is not everything. It is really such a small part, when it comes down to it. It doesn't bring happiness or real friends. It doesn't buy love. I think that to reach full happiness in life, you must have God in your life, and lots of loving people at your side.

And if possible, a significant other, of course.

"Mark my words. You'll never get married now," she warned me again. It's amazing how people cling to these clichés. I hear her say a few more things, but by then I have put the phone down beside my cat, Lucy, who eagerly listens. She loves voices, and is used to hearing the rambling ends of lectures from my everhelpful parents. Now I just have to stop her from purring before she gives away my secret!