A Taste of Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Mother Nature’s sense of Humor

My mother and I showed up at a friend's wedding in the same dress. Now, I'm not talking about same color or similar design - I'm talking same dress. And, my mother was not one to try to hide her age by dressing a generation or two younger than she was. Let's just say her style was not "hip" as my youngest daughter would say. This meant that if she was not trying to achieve a "younger" look, then I had achieved a matronly look - by default.

Would anyone notice? Would anyone notice? Are you kidding?  We were at a hometown wedding in a small town and it had often been said that my mother and I resembled each other. Well, on that day, that was an understatement. To make matters worse, she looked better in the dress than I did. The good news was the reception had an open bar. The bad news was that I had to attend the wedding ceremony first. Certainly, the church was big enough for me to slink into the back row, unnoticed. Or, better yet, go home and change clothes.

There are two things a southern woman can always change - her mind and her clothes (and of course her hair color - but that is for another day). Unfortunately, in this case, when I made the former, I had no back-up plan for the later.  It wasn't like I had a nice selection of dressy wedding frocks hanging in my closet. Then, it just got worse. A friend of mine approached me.

"I just saw your mother and she looks so good." Then she stopped. "Y'all are wearing the same dress."

"No kidding."

"You didn't do that on purpose, did you?"

"Sure, I enjoyed the mother-daughter outfits so much when I was six I just couldn't resist doing it again." I said sarcastically. If I killed her now, where would I put the body? I asked myself, not referring to my mother but my busybody friend who was about to turn my evening into reality show Hell. 

Then my youngest daughter came over to me. "Do you realize that you and ZeeZee have on the same dress?"

"Yes, it's hard not to."

"You are worse off than I thought."

(And, as they say, the rest of the chapter is in the book . . .)