A reflective beam of light caught my eye and I looked down at my granddaughter’s hand. The beautiful ring rested sweetly on her delicate finger, its skillfully faceted diamond was now catching the sunlight and casting miniature rainbows across her skin. I looked back up to her face only to see that her lips were still moving far too quickly. For the past hour all I had heard about was Adam, her fiancé, and despite the length of time she had been talking about him, I really couldn’t tell you much about him expect for the fact the Susie, my granddaughter, thought that he was perfect in every which way.
“Grandma? Are you still listening?”
I looked up with a start and smiled as I nodded.
“I was so excited when he asked me to marry him. I really do love him Grandma, I can’t wait until you get to meet him!” Susie exclaimed.
I smiled again as I looked into my granddaughter’s excited eyes, but there was nothing I could do to keep the memories of my own past from flooding my mind as if they had just happened yesterday.


“But I don’t love him!” I yelled, as I stood abruptly from the kitchen table. My chair fell to the ground behind me and the crash filled the silence for a short while. I looked to my mother but she didn’t lift her gaze from the table. She had the same sad look on her face that she had had since she and my father first sat me down at the table. I turned to my father who, in contrast to my mother, was staring at me with a stern expression. He had done all the talking while my mother never once shifted her eyes from the table. My father slowly rose from his chair as he continued to look at me. “You will do as you are told and marry Daniel,” he said, his voice was rigid and exact. I could no longer hold back the tears, they flowed onto my hands as I tried to cover my face and run up the stairs.


I must have cried for days on end. I was so young and didn’t have the slightest inclination as to why they would make me marry someone I didn’t love. Daniel, my betrothed, was my father’s closest friend’s son. He was from a very well off family, very much like my own, and was studying to become a lawyer, very much like his father. I had known Daniel since we were small children, always being shoved together to play while our parents sipped cocktails and talked. Despite out long acquaintance I had never thought much of him; Daniel was a quiet, shy sort of boy and was always polite and respectful. He came to visit me a couple times in the days after my father had told me the news. I refused to see him and kept to myself in my room. Every time I thought of marrying Daniel tears came to my eyes, I didn’t think I could ever come to love someone like him.


But I did. It’s been 56 years now since the night my father announced my fate at the kitchen table. As my reluctance faded, Daniel’s and my friendship formed and somewhere along the way friendship gave way to love. I heard the soft tinkle of ice cubes against glass as Daniel brought out the tray of lemonade to the porch, where I sat across from Susie. He handed Susie and I both a glass and sat down next to me taking my hand into his own. I looked from our interlocked hands back up to Susie, “I hope someday we’ll be as happy as you and Grandpa are,” she said to me. My eyes flashed to Daniel beside me, and then back to her, I smiled to my granddaughter as I said, “My dear Susie, I hope you will be too.”