FALLING STARS
Chapter Thirty-Six
December 15, 1971
Rose and Cal set their wedding date for
December 15, 1971. It was to be a much larger wedding than Rose’s first,
surrounded as they were by friends and family, but a smaller wedding than Cal
and Laura’s. No longer a member of the upper class, Cal did not find it
important to make it a social achievement by inviting all of the most important
members of Philadelphia society. Instead, they invited all of their children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as the many friends each had
made over the years.
Surprisingly, none of their children had
objected to the marriage, not even a token objection. Laura had left her family
behind forty-two years earlier, and Rose had been more of a mother to Emily and
Nathan than Laura ever had, and Rose’s children, while they still missed their
father, understood her need to go on with life, and wanted her to be happy.
In November, Cal and Rose had each sold the
large, empty houses that they lived in and had purchased a smaller, much easier
to care for house on the outskirts of Philadelphia. They had moved out of their
old houses just a few days before the wedding, to allow the new families to
move in.
On the morning of December 15, Rose stood at
the back of the church, waiting for the ceremony to begin. It was a cold but
clear day, with a thin layer of snow on the ground outside, and the sun shone
brightly through the windows of the church.
Rose’s two bridesmaids, Gina and Lizzy, stood
at the entrance to the sanctuary, waiting for the music to begin. Rose looked
admiringly at their gowns, which were made of pale pink chiffon and satin and
resembled the dress she had worn the last night on Titanic. She still had the
dress, shredded and stained as it was, and the bridesmaids’ gowns had been
copied from it.
Between the bridesmaids stood two-year-old
Susan, the flower girl. Susan could hardly keep still, playing with the flower
petals in her basket, tugging on her cousins’ sashes, and trying to run out
into the aisle. Her cousins restrained her, and Harry finally came over and
spoke a few sharp words to her, which only settled her down for a moment.
Finally, Gina picked her up, giving the
flower basket to Lizzy, and walked around, trying to calm the excited toddler.
Rose laughed as Gina tossed her red hair back and talked to the little girl,
making Susan giggle.
People had often commented on how much Gina
resembled Rose, something that never failed to amuse both of them. They were
not related by blood; Gregory and Emily had adopted Gina in 1962 when she was
six years old. The couple had wanted another child for years, but had been
unable to have one, so they had finally adopted Gina shortly after Emily’s
forty-ninth birthday. She was as much a part of the family as any of those
related by blood, and Rose was proud to have her for a granddaughter.
Rose looked down at her own wedding outfit, an
elegant pink suit with a pearl pin attached to one shoulder. She could never
have worn such a color when she was younger, with her red hair, but now that
she was seventy-six years old, and her hair had turned to gray, it looked
elegant and sophisticated. She had had her hair highlighted in silver for the
occasion, and each of her children had told her how beautiful she looked. Susan
had told her she was pretty, and said that when she grew up, she wanted to have
silver hair just like Grandma’s.
Rose looked up as Gregory, Andrew, and Harry
gathered around her. Andrew took her arm, and led her to stand behind the
bridesmaids as the music began.
"Gregory...Andrew...Harry...what are you
doing?"
"We’re giving you away, Mom,"
Gregory told her, as Gina, Susan, and Lizzy started up the aisle. "Someone
has to, and since we don’t have a great-grandfather to give you away, we’re
doing it."
Rose smiled at them. She hadn’t had anyone to
give her away at her first wedding, but she didn’t tell them that. If they
wanted to give their mother away, she would allow it.
Gina and Lizzy made their way up the aisle,
Susan between them. The toddler exuberantly tossed flower petals into the air,
covering herself, the floor, her cousins, and several of the guests with them.
When she tried to stop and pick some of the petals up, her cousins took her
firmly by the hands and marched up the aisle, not giving her a chance to
protest or scream.
When the bridal march began, Rose stepped
into the aisle on Andrew’s arm, her two other sons following close behind.
Andrew had become much closer to the family after his father’s death, and had
been the first to congratulate Rose and Cal on their engagement. Now, dressed
in civilian garb instead of military, he escorted his mother up the aisle to
her second husband.
As the music ended, and Rose came to stand
beside Cal, the minister asked, "Who gives this woman to be married to
this man?"
The three brothers stood together proudly.
"We do."
As the minister spoke the words that would
make Cal and Rose husband and wife, Rose thought back over the years. She and
Cal had not gotten along well the first time they had been engaged. They had
both been young and determined to have the final say on everything. The years
had mellowed them both, as well as their experiences in life. No longer did
they engage in power struggles, and each was far more tolerant of the other’s
idiosyncrasies than they had been before.
Cal had not objected when Rose had told him
that she wished to keep the last name Dawson. It had been her name for almost
sixty years, since the day she had disembarked from the Carpathia. She had
taken the name as her own long before she had married Jack, and the name was a
part of her. Though her keeping the name Dawson indicated a certain unwillingness
to completely let Jack go, Cal had accepted her decision, knowing that Rose and
Jack had shared something that he would never quite comprehend, and that the
couple would always be inextricably linked, though Jack was gone.
At the end of the ceremony, when Cal and Rose
walked back down the aisle, the guests stood up and applauded. Rose smiled,
looking at the faces of family and friends, and then, at the back of the
church, it seemed to her that she saw a translucent figure looking on and
applauding as well.
She glanced away, and when she looked back,
the figure had vanished. But somehow, she knew that Jack had been there, and
that he approved.