Sunrise, Sunset

Saturday I spent much of the day watching and commenting as my first-born tried on a parade of wedding dresses. She had been shopping for "The Dress" a couple times before, but it was important to her that I come along at least once. A beautiful young woman stood before me in beads, satin, and lace, but I was seeing much more....
A newborn baby with thick black hair who had to be forcibly brought into the world after 23 hours of tormenting her mother. Even then, Erica knew the impact of the grand entrance. She was a sweet-faced toddler--potty-trained herself at 19 months and talked early. She couldn't say her "k" or "g" sounds, so conversation with her could be funny. She called herself Erita, and her favorite Muppet was Termit the Fraud. At her babysitter's house, a stray cat appeared one day, and Erica announced when I arrived, "The white titty's here! The white titty's here!" We told her to stay off the step-ladder on the front porch where Fred was doing some work. Of course, the next time we turned around, there she was on the top step, grinning with triumph. She rolled my bowling ball into the bathroom and shattered the toilet--not the last damage she'd cause with a ball of some kind.
School was Erica's forte, and she tackled every activity with the desire to excel. She never had to be pushed to do her homework or practice her instruments because she disciplined herself. She saved $100 so she could buy herself a pet snake, refusing to be side-tracked by impulse purchases until meeting her goal. In high school we went to her concerts, volleyball games, parades, plays, forensics, track meets....all of which explained the continued disaster-area state of her bedroom and bathroom. "Mom, I don't have TIME!" for that meaningless drudgery. Always in a hurry--tired of waiting for her dad to go to town with her one Christmas vacation day, she drove off without him!! I could not believe a smart girl having a death wish like that--it got her grounded for the rest of vacation. She worked with me at Country Treasures, then Rogan's Shoes, coming home with enough footwear to get her through her 20s. When she got a ticket for not stopping at a railroad crossing in Elk Mound, she went to court to have her say. Wearing a suit, glasses, and hair pulled up, she looked like a character from "Law and Order"--and did get the fine reduced by a few dollars.
In August 2004, we left her crying in the dorm parking lot at UW-Madison, all of us bawling, too, as we drove away. She cried for about a minute and then took the town by storm for the next 5 years...and now she's heading to medical school in the fall and planning her wedding. "How do you like this one, Mom?" brings me back. She looks lovely in all of them--so poised, confident, excited about the future. I will cry at the wedding, no matter what she wears.

P.S. Actually, I'll probably cry before that, too. We looked at a few mother-of-the-bride dresses before leaving one shop. They were all long, beady/sparkly/brocaded--like something Queen Elizabeth would wear to a state dinner. Can't wait to go shopping for MY dress--not!!