Love is Not Reserved for the Young

"Oh, Mother, you are almost as bad as Tony. Well! Tony spent most of the first three days in meetings." Looking like a mistreated little girl, Noreen continued. "I was all by myself. No one to talk to."

"Sure! No one to talk to. She knew every-one on the beach the first day, not only their names, but all about their families, good and bad, and their family tree."

"Well, I had to talk about something. And besides, some of them wanted to talk. I seem to have a way of getting people to open up."

"When I was finally able to spend time with her, we couldn’t go anywhere without seeing some-one that Noreen knew."

Noreen gave Tony an irritated look then continued excitedly. "Tony got us a cabin away from the crowd."

"Not far enough," he chided.

Another frustrated look from Noreen, then in her, still excited voice, "We were far enough away, no matter what he says, from the crowd to be alone and yet close enough to do everything we felt like doing. Oh, Mom, Hawaii was great! I don’t really know what did it. Maybe the magic of the island or maybe Tony finally grew on me. But," Noreen raised her voice in a high excitement and started bouncing in her seat, "we are getting married!"

Nancy took one of her daughter’s hands, and one of Tony’s who was standing in front of them. Looking from one to the other, her happiness sparkled. "I’m so happy. You both know that this is what I wanted to hear since you two started living together. Tony, how did you do it? Did you wine and dine her, shower her with all types of exotic gifts?"

"It was as much a surprise to me as it is to you. Last night, after we finished making love . . ."

"You have to tell everything?"

"You would anyway, besides, I know I can talk to your mother about anything. Right, Nancy?"

Nancy smiled at these two. "Right. I’m glad you realize that."

"Well, anyway, we just finished making love, when this witch," Noreen gave Tony a shove from her sitting position, "said to me, ‘I’m ready.’ I came back with, ‘Ready! We just finished. Give me a break; an hour or so.’ So she said, ‘No, silly,’ imagine her calling me silly. She said, ‘I mean getting married.’ I almost fell out of bed. It really was so unexpected."

Noreen took up the story. "I really don’t know how or why, but I finally knew we should do it."

"Well, we have many things to do," said Nancy. "Have you decided on a date?"

"Sometime in September," Noreen answer-ed.

"Now you know why we took so long deplaning. She had to discuss it with all the flight attendants. They were talking about it all the way here. You would think they couldn’t possibly find anything else to say, but they sure did." Noreen gave him another loving shove.

Noreen thought out loud. "I wonder if Jimmy will accept Tony and me now that we’re get-ting married."

Nancy answered seriously, "We will see."