Tough Stuff

Here's the thing.

In the midst of happy-go-lucky, lala wedding-land bubble, there's real life happening. Now, I wasn't so self-involved that I thought the world was all about me on the weekend of April 7th, but when real life intervened it kind of surprised me.

Without infringing on any too-personal details, something devastatingly sad happened to my oldest friend and bridesmaid Rebecca. Something so big, so crushing, that her husband called me Friday night to tell me Rebecca wouldn't be able to be a part of the wedding the next day.

Tears. Lots. But the thing was, they weren't for me at all. And I kind of thought they would be.

One of my dearest friends, the girl I would stare at in church as a little kid, hoping I'd look like her when I grew up, and she wasn't going to be a part of my big day. Looking back now, I almost feel like I should have been more thrown for a loop, more selfish, and more chaos should have been created.

But I wasn't. And chaos wasn't even in the equation.

And I know the reason.

These girls, the four I chose to stand next to me when everyone I know and everyone I would be related to in a matter of minutes was staring at me: Those girls are my truest, deepest, best friends. When one's heart breaks, mine breaks. And it goes both ways.

As for the wedding party, the three remaining girls - Emily, Paula, Melissa - just picked right up and took over. They figured it out. They told the groomsmen what was happening. They told our pastor what had happened. They told the DJ to skip part of the introduction. It was handled in an instant. I even had a moment after the ceremony of saying "Oh! So that's how you guys walked down the aisle? Great!"

And you know what? Rebecca was there anyway. And not just in the text of the program. She's a part of me as much as I'm a part of her, and we're already dying to pour over the photos together.

I'm the luckiest girl alive to have friends like these.

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