This Story Must be Told.

Her hands told her story. Aged some, fingernails bitten down to pieces as they always were. The mark on her left hand ring finger where a wedding ring once clung, safely. A promise. She could still feel him next to her at night...almost hear his snoring that she never seemed to mind.
Because she promised. She promised to love him that day in her youth as a beautiful bride, her dark hair cascasding in curls down the bridal satin of her dress.
Through the snoring, the greying of the hair, the less than pleasant days...through the good times and the bad. In happiness and in want. In rags. In riches.
She promised.
Her aged hands dried the tears from her eyes with a soft tissue pressed to her still-youthful face.
He had slammed the door soon after the better part of 25 years. And in tears she would plead with her daughter every night to hope in something greater. To hope in the One who would never even reach for the door handle when the going was tough. She reassured her little one, a blonde young woman with freckles on the top of her nose that that man would come one day. In spite of it all, there was hope. For the one who never reached for the door handle would usher in a man.
Not a boy.
A man. Unfiltered love. Radiant eyes. One who would rather not live one more day on this earth without her daughter. She knew her daughter would be scooped up. Carried away by the prince she always dreamed of.
And no. He would never be perfect. But he would love in every way he knew how. And that would be more than enough. To wipe the tears from her daughter's face and make use of those laugh lines and dimples in her face once again. It had been so long since her baby girl had laughed. So long. As she sat with the tears burning her eyes she remembered the day her little girl had stopped laughing. She remembered the look on her daughter's face when she came back inside after begging her daddy with tears pouring down her face onto the hot July pavement...She felt the loss her daughter felt. A kick in the stomach. Her baby's pale face...puffy eyes from crying...the million questions she would have for years and years to come. The questions that would most certainly come when the man of her dreams would show up, put a beautiful sparkling ring on that finger and lift her little girl in his strong arms.
The questions of how was she to plan a wedding without her daddy there? Present. Interested in her life and who she was...who she loved with her whole heart. She couldn't bear to think of the wedding day. With no one to walk her daughter down the aisle. She knew these questions would come.
The tissue got damper with tears the more the thoughts flooded her mind. She pictured her little girl completely grown. Into a woman. In a room standing in front of a mirror...in the most breathtaking white dress not even a princess could envision.
"Mom, can you help me button up? Mom...where is my "something blue?" Ah...gosh Mom...I am so scared. But excited...but scared."
"I know little girl."
"Moooooom. I'm not little anymore. I'm getting married!"
"Oh I know. I keep forgettting. It's like I keep seeing you as you once were, running into my room at night in an oversized t-shirt you got at some concert asking me to put rollers in your hair!"
"Ha...oh I remember that....Mom?"
"Yes?"
"...I wish Dad was here."
"I know."
"Yeah. But it's okay...I think I'm okay."
"You are. You will be. Look straight into that wonderful man's eyes and don't look back. Hold fast to that love my little girl. And you do have one father who loves you more than anyone else. Ever. And he's watching you today. He's there Meggie."
"I know Mom..."
And He was. He was there. Nodding his approval as his precious daughter's dress sparkled and slid down the church aisle...closer to a beaming kind-hearted man. His eyes glistened with tears as she smiled at him. Part goofily to try and soothe the poor man's nerves. His eyes danced with laughter. As did hers. As did His as He watched, the wisdom of thousands of divine years beaming from his eyes...not from a seat in the church...from the heavens above.
And His laughter as the preacher said, "You make kiss the bride..." echoed the heavens. And His applause? That was the loudest of all...