(20 minute read)
ACT 1
The scene opens up next to a barn. A woman is crying. Chickens and goats at her feet, she sets down the wire basket of eggs. Only three eggs today. Maybe the chickens are also stressed. Their usual offering of eight to ten is less than half, and one egg has been pecked and oozes with yolk, dirtying up the nesting box. Carolyn scoops out the sticky shavings and tosses them into the bushes. This mess is the least of her problems lately and just par for the course.
She sits down on the worn teak bench that was a twentieth wedding anniversary gift to her husband fifteen years earlier. She chose the bench made of teak wood because this particular wood ages beautifully in time and remains strong even as it endures the weather in its environment. It withstood snow, rain, sleet and hot sun. The bench moved from under the canopy of towering fall colored leafy trees in Connecticut to the green grassy backyard in a Virginia suburb. Carolyn never imagined the anniversary bench would end up in a goat pasture behind a barn next to a chicken coop.
Staring at the miniature goats running to catch up with one another and butting heads in play, she saw none of the frolicking before her eyes. Her tears flowed as her mind ran down the list of all the unfortunate events that had come her way in the month before her son’s wedding. What should be the happiest time for a mother to launch her oldest son off into a life of love and matrimony with his bride, was instead an onslaught of adversity. One thing after another, testing her resolve, wearing her down.
“You are being tested,” were the wise words from her older sister. No stranger to stress leading up to a wedding, Carolyn knew from the start to expect hiccups. Only a year before she traveled this road with her daughter’s wedding. Little pivots here and there needed to be made as they navigated the multitude of decision making and inevitable budget busting. In the end, the one big thing they had no control over happened. It rained. Not just rain, but a chilly 40 degree rain in the month of May, so the garden wedding turned into a beautiful indoor in front of the fireplace wedding. No one was the wiser. The stress of the week before as they painfully checked the weather app and readjusted expectations was behind them. They were tested and passed with flying colors.
Ada, the littlest goat hopped up onto Carolyn’s lap, nudging her head into the nook of her arm to be snuggled. She scratched Ada’s back with pointy fingernails from her manicure. The manicure where the wrong color was used. She had asked for the dip #191, which was a soft taupe. As the woman was finishing up her nails, Carolyn sat there puzzled at the peach color. She wondered how it could be so different. Then her eye caught the dipping powder container and it looked from her angle to be 161. An easy mistake. Par for the course. Too late. Add it to the list.
Carolyn did the one thing her mother cautioned her not to do. She made a list. Every bad thing that kept happening got added to a running list on her cellphone. She opened up the sticky note app to the list titled, “Sh*t You Just Can’t Make Up” and added “wrong nail dipping color.” Her mother would not like this list. Often in life one crappy thing after another takes place, like a tumbleweed, snowball or tall Jenga stack. Her mother in California once listened to her crying on the phone from Connecticut as Carolyn listed everything that had gone wrong in the span of 48 hours. Her mother calmly advised her to take a breath and pause for a minute. Then she gave her three words to say aloud, a mantra of sorts. It was a short phrase to acknowledge the single unfortunate incident, but to not let it compound with other unlucky stuff happening. “It’s just this.”
Carolyn tried it. The kids were all loaded into the car and she was searching the house upside down like a mad woman, looking for the car keys. Unsuccessful, late to preschool, she gave up and brought all four kids back inside of the house. “It’s just this,” she told herself. Hours later a full gallon of milk got knocked off of the counter by an independent 4 year old. “It’s just this.” Then the toilet overflowed because of a plastic toy inserted into the deep cavity. “It’s just this.” The mantra only helped by making her laugh in a maniacal crazed way. The children stood wide-eyed and wondered why Mommy was laughing and crying as she sopped up the flooded bathroom with towels. It was more than “just this” then as well as in the month before her son’s wedding. To list it is to see that it was truly a test of all tests. Within the span of several weeks leading up to the wedding…
“Sh*t You Just Can’t Make Up”
A well-meaning sister gives writing advice that bursts this budding writer’s bubble
The Sisters argue
Flu shot at the doctor was not the best timing the week before the wedding
Torrential down pour reveals two leaks in the roof, one above the kitchen with water gushing through a light fixture and one above the bedroom closet
Car Battery Dies at Walmart
A chicken dies (RIP Chicken #14 aka Crazy Purple)
Mother of the groom is stung by a yellow jacket and has allergic reaction results in swelling and pain (on the outer arm which will show on the slit in her dress)
Hairdresser has a death in the family and has to cancel
Make up artist lesson goes well but advises the wrong shade of foundation to purchase, resulting in more of an oompa loompa look
Wrong nail dipping color was applied at the salon
Air Conditioner goes out as the Temperature reaches 80
Washing machine malfunctions and floods the laundry room
While cutting the grass, son gets debris in his eye, which swells and is infected
While cutting the grass, the bad boy ride-on mower breaks down
Got lost finding the way to the embroidery shop
Argued with son over the confusion of getting lost and not following gps
Got lost finding the way to the new dog groomer
Argued with husband over the confusion of getting lost and not listening to him and the gps
Sons argued and cried
Bride and groom had a spat and cried
Son/groom bought a tuxedo shirt too short for his arms (realizing this two days before the wedding)
Grandma makes the trek from Arkansas to Virginia but it takes a toll, she wakes up dizzy and her son/father of the groom takes her to the ER and spends the whole day there getting tests done (the Thursday before the wedding)
Father of the Bride gets ill and is in the hospital Thursday with the likelihood of making it to his daughter’s wedding looking very slim
The Virginia humidity swoops in and smothers the afternoon outdoor rehearsal dinner
Father of the bride is unable to make the rehearsal or dinner, and remains at the hospital
All of the vendors for the dinner get lost on the rural property
Three challenges present at the setup of the dinner: ice delivery delayed so no drinks are cold on this hot steamy evening, no cork screw to be found (at this winery property) and totally running out of time
What else can be added to this list? Just when Carolyn was sure that luck had turned a corner, something else happened. Perhaps the last straw or the final push over the edge, was when she and her husband dashed from the rehearsal dinner set up at the barn over to the pavilion to catch the end of the rehearsal. As soon as she saw her son and his bride and the whole bridal party, her emotions surfaced. They approached the tent just as her son was walking a strange woman up to the outdoor altar. Arm in arm they moved up through the aisle between the chairs to the music of La Vie en Rose. Like a record needle scratching to a stop, Carolyn twisted her face in confusion and asked what was going on and who her son was walking arm and arm with. “Oh, that’s the officiant,” answered one of the wedding coordinators.
This small thing triggered something in Carolyn. Of what remained in her shallow reservoir of flexibility, she just snapped. “No. That is not right. If he is going to walk someone up the aisle arm in arm before the ceremony begins it should be me. Not whoever she is.”
It was not exactly a “Mother of the Groomzilla” moment, but pretty close.
ACT 2
The scene opens up next to a barn. A woman is crying leaning against a red truck (a truck that would need to be towed three days later because it would not start at the end of the night). She is trying to catch her breath and stop hiccup weeping. Out from the large open air white hilltop barn emerges an older woman. She walks to her daughter’s side with purpose, only to be warned by her son-in-law that “Carolyn is just having a moment.”
The wedding rehearsal at the pavilion had been a bit chaotic until order was restored. The groom got to walk his mother down the aisle, with his father trailing behind. The practice of the ceremony made the whole thing real. It was happening. Before she left for the barn her son gave her a big hug and said, “This is amazing!” This opened the floodgates of tears for Carolyn as she and her husband drove the mile back to the barn.
“I just need a minute,” she said to her husband. At the sight of her mother with open arms, Carolyn’s crying returned. Then her mother took her by both shoulders and whisper-shouted at her daughter.
“Carolyn! Everything is beautiful inside of that barn. The table, the flowers, the candles. It is magical! Pull yourself together,” she said through tears in her own eyes.
“So much stuff, Mom. I wanted it all to go well. Why does stuff keep happening?” Like a 14 year old girl she whined to her mother. Then something changed. Standing there in the gravel parking lot in Virginia with her 83 year old mother in front of her, there all the way from California, a new feeling washed over Carolyn. She thought to herself, “My mom and dad are here. My son is getting married. As I sobbed in the car my husband asked me if this was how I wanted to remember our son’s wedding. No. This is not.”
She wiped away her tears and sweat with a tissue. The tissues came from little packages that said, “Happy Tears for the Wedding” which were placed in the hotel welcome bags. Her mother was right. The rustic barn had been transformed into an elegant intimate dinner gathering. As the wedding party made its way from the pavilion to the barn, there were gasps of awe and delight. Let the festivities begin!
People mingled. Friends and family got better acquainted. A welcome followed by a blessing, and then a delicious al fresco Italian pasta dinner. The barn was no ordinary horse stall barn. It was open on all four sides. A long tree cut table flanked with two benches sat 36 people. The bride and groom sat in the center. They could glance in both directions and meet eyes with those they loved.
The toasting began with the groom’s bothers and sister. Then friends, cousins, parents and grandparents each took a moment to share words of love and well wishes to the couple. At one point in the toasting there was a pause, so Carolyn stood up. She explained that she wrote something (actually dictated it into her phone) a week prior to this night. Her toast was about tears. In the month leading up to the wedding she was extra weepy. It made her wonder what water (coming from her eyes all too often lately) symbolized. She shared with the rehearsal dinner guests that she did what one does when they want an answer to such a question. She Googled what water symbolized. “New beginnings or change.” The day she wrote (dictated) her toast she thought all of the stressful things were behind her. She had yet to have a yellow jacket sting her arm or her car battery die at Walmart. As she held the little tissue package of “Happy Tears” Carolyn toasted her son and future daughter-in-law. “To a lifetime together of shared tears!”
The positive energy inside of that open-air barn was contained and intact. Carolyn’s mother was right, “It was magical.”
Hearing so much love and admiration expressed for their son and for the woman he was to marry the next day washed away all of the stress leading up to that evening in the barn. Even the red truck not starting at the end of the evening could not ruin the mood.
ACT 3
The scene opens up on a hillside near a barn. The woman is dressed in a long black wedding gown with lace sleeves and jet black curls. She is standing smiling as the love of her life, her tall handsome prince turns to see her for the first time on their wedding day. It is the “First Look” that is a private moment between the bride and groom (and the photographer). Jyl always dreamed of wearing a black wedding gown. Her uniqueness is matched by Colton, donning a white tuxedo jacket, black tie, vest, black and white patent leather shoes, looking like a dashing old movie star.
The morning downpour ushered out the humidity and brought in the mild dry fall day that they had hoped for. The vineyard in Virginia was a picturesque backdrop for this October wedding. All of the bridesmaids wore fall colors, each symbolizing something different. For two creative people that Jyl and Colton are, every decision came from an idea they came up with. As one guest noted, attending this wedding familiarized them with the bride and groom. If someone did not know them too well before this day, they certainly would by the end of it.
The wedding ceremony had a strict “No Cellphones” rule. Only the professional photographers captured the entrance, the exchange of vows and rings. All friends and family in attendance were fully present. In fact, the miracle of the day was that Jyl’s father was released from the hospital in time to come walk his daughter down the aisle. Their vows, heard by those in attendance, were beautiful and unique to Colton and Jyl. The guests tossed flower petals at the newlyweds as they left the tent.
The string trio was followed by a jazz band during the cocktail hour. Guests mingled. Some wore costumes as encouraged on the invitations. A scarecrow, Dolly Parton, a skeleton, and the Addams Family were in attendance. Then it was time for dinner inside of the pavilion. Then toasts and dancing. The bride and groom glided around the dance floor to “Something” after taking dance lessons for the last month. It was a touching cover of the Beatles tune. The lyrics stirred emotion for all watching,”There’s something in the way she moves.” They stared deep into each others eyes. It was romantic.
Then Jyl danced with her father to the score of their favorite movie, Jurassic Park. It was beautiful, and even more special since he almost was not able to make his daughter’s wedding. The third special dance was the mother and son dance. They chose the Michael Buble’ song “Forever Now” which he wrote when his son was born. As Michael crooned, “I’m always going to love you forever, now,” guests’ eyes welled up. No tears from Carolyn. She was basking in the glow of a day that went far better than the month leading up. Swaying in the arms of her overjoyed son, Carolyn thought of nothing else. She savored the present moment.
Then the party cranked it up a notch with the band playing classic rock tunes. Guests of all ages and dressed in different costumes hit the dance floor. Stonebrook rocked the place. One special part of the night was when the band played Lynard Skynryd’s “Free Bird.” It was a fun contest known as The Anniversary Dance. All the married couples went to the dance floor. As the song went on, the lead singer interrupted with, “If you have been married less than two hours, please leave the dance floor.” The newlyweds were off. Then two years, then five years, then ten years…The dance floor crowd emptied out as the wedding years accumulated. The groom’s grandparents, married 63 years, were the last dancers remaining. Two eighty-three year olds dancing to Free Bird was an unforgettable moment. They won! Truly inspiring.
The bride and groom cut the pumpkin cake, tossed the garter and bouquet. Then, something you do not often see at weddings, the groom took the stage and played keyboard with the band. As a musician it made sense that their guest book was vinyl record albums for guests to sign with metallic sharpie pens. So creative. There were s’mores outside at fire-pits. Best costumes were awarded. Then after a magical day and night, the newlyweds were sent off with a sparkler exit. They spent their first night together as husband and wife in a vintage train car. Soon after the happy couple flew off to California for their honeymoon.
Carolyn sits on the teak bench next to her barn, with chickens milling around. There is a slight breeze. A dog barks in the distance. She hops up onto her feet and walks the perimeter of the pasture under the orange and brown leafed trees. The seven little goats frolic and follow along.
a magical barn
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