It was two days before her wedding. She looked out over the prairie and thought about how different her life was going to be living back on the farm. She had been living in their town home for about two years. It was a very large house with a staff of two. Her home in town was very beautiful with two open stairways. One led to the servant's quarters and one to the six bedrooms; one of which was hers. She had helped her mother and the cook, but she had never been in charge of a home before. She would be on her own with no staff to help her. She had been taught in all of the necessities of being a woman in charge of her own home. Her hope chest was full of linens, and doilies, dishtowels, pillow cases that she had embroidered, and crocheted. She remembered with a frown the tatting that she had edged some of the doilies with. She wondered what her new husband would think of her as a wife. They had known each other for over a year, but only as a boy that delivered groceries to her home. His father owned the local grocery store and he delivered them. She had not held his hand or had a kiss from him, just a proposal. It was so very different of the wedding she had imagined in her teenaged years.
Some of her half brothers and her mother were waiting for her to help get some of her things settled into her new home. There would be more to put away after the wedding. Her wedding would be in the big home in town. There would be games and lots of expensive food. The cook and her mother along with her help had been cooking for days.
Her dress had been at the dressmaker's forever it seemed. It had hundreds of seed pearls and tiny embroidered flowers on the bodice. The skirt had an overlay of sheer white with the tiniest embroidered roses to match the bodice. She supposed she would have a good time because she was told that she would.
Her father had given her the farm as a wedding gift along with ten thousand dollars and a set of china. They would start out their lives without debt. They were very fortunate to say the least.
She heard her mother call her to come into the house and help. She took one long look at the prairie and said a silent prayer asking for courage and strength to carry on what her parents wanted.
As she walked back to the house that she probably would spend the rest of her life in she thought, "I am going to plant flowers. They will make me happy. I will plant some lilac bushes.
"Yes, Mother. I am coming."
The year was 1897. She was twenty years old and her new husband to be was twenty-six years old.
1 comment:
I hope you enjoy this series of folks that endured the harsh winters and tragedies of the late 1800's. This is not a Laura Ingalls Wilder story, but in those days there were many pioneers that walked beside others with similar stories.
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