The Wedding

"Mamma?" "Yes, Charlotte?" "Will you arrange for the church?" "Charlotte, you come to tell us you're getting married with the wedding only two months away! Take time, have a think, reconsider. We could wait a little or even call it off for the time being." "You'll arrange for the church?" "My girl, he's just not...just not what we believed him to be! I, too, was deceived. Now I discover not only does he drink alcohol, as I had suspected on several occasions, but he plays cards! He has been seen at dance halls and taverns!" "That's the gossip, you mean, Mother? I thought you didn't agree with gossip!" "Girlie, girlie, look at where you're going! He's a boy, not a man! What sort of an example will he be for your children? What sort of life will you lead? You really should not be thinking of getting married yourself! You don't know the first thing about sewing or cooking keeping house or looking after a child. You were never interested. Your father and I won't be around to pick up the pieces; we have our own work to do." "What would you know about it? We have fun, mother! Do you know what that is? I'll tell you: it's what you've never had in your entire life! And where has that got you? all this working, praying and thinking! Have you ever really laughed? Out-loud? No? Never? Not even a smile? Never? Don't reach out to me with those rough hands! Suffering and sacrifice all the way, every day! Oh, yes, I see it; we all do. We see you think it makes you better! No, Mother, not better, just poor, poor and pathetic, that's where it's got you." "Very well. Just don't think you can come to us with the hungry babies or the black and blue! You will not come back here whatever the circumstances. You imagine white dresses, big houses, fine clothes, like those picture shows of which you are so fond. We don't have money for a church wedding." "But we were there for every cleanup, every choir practise, every study group..." "Charlotte, we are poor people." "How dare she say that to me!"