Aunt Deb’s Wedding Day

I remember Aunt Debbie’s wedding day. Jewel, Doris and Lois were there at our house also. I watched them primp and was fascinated that they were combing their eyebrows. Bill and Debbie were going to be married and go to Ohio. Bill had an apartment and a job there. To set the scene, Aunt Debbie was known as the “Queen of Big Branch”. She had apparently cut a swathe through the community and left a trail of broken hearts in her wake. The day wore on and there was no sign of Uncle Bill. I remember sitting in the front porch swing and listening to the talk. There were tears and a remark (gleefully, I thought) that maybe what goes around, comes around. Most everyone thought that she had been jilted. This was applachia in the 50’s and telephones were few and very far between. He finally showed up a little worse for wear. He had been in a car accident and had gotten there as soon as he could. My memory is a little shaky, after all it has been 50 plus years, but I think that they woke up the minister and got married around midnight and headed on out for Ohio. They lived happily ever after. We got to visit Uncle Bill after he had gotten a diagnosis of terminal cancer. I told him that story. He loved it, he had not known that she thought that she was jilted. He is gone but not forgotten.