the ties that bind...

the monday after a family wedding weekend...feeling comes back to your feet...the hairdo is falling...and life resumes...saturday, i was fortunate to share in the celebration as mike's cousin, matthew, exchanged vows with our new beautiful cousin, marlye...now, let's see..math...i met mike's family in 1987...and matthew was...four!...there's a grey hair...waiting for the ceremony i looked behind me at my daughter, and nieces and nephew...smiling and radiant...adulthood snatching them so quickly...now they are only babies in worn photographs....that afternoon i had pulled out my wedding album...waxing nostalgic, if you will...there i was...the hair, the makeup...the staten island hairdresser who promised me subtle but looking so much more tess mcgill than tess of the d'urbervilles...and you all know the feeling as years go by...the ache for all faces smiling in pictures...faces no longer here...and so as i looked around that night at the party at all the new faces...i smiled...and then shared a drink or two with dear sisters-in-law, and cousins...and even a niece!...and laughed during selfies...watched the torch pass...and hope to be passing it in those tight heels for many years to come...