THE DAM ROAD

My son’s engagement to his girlfriend was a joyful announcement.  We celebrated with food, phone calls to family, and gifts.   I wanted my soon to be daughter-in-law to have a keepsake so I gave her a necklace my husband had given to me on our first Christmas together.  The gift was intended to be a gesture of welcome and appreciation to her for joining our family.

Several weeks later at her birthday party I noticed she was wearing the necklace.  I commented on it and she replied, “I have worn it every day and I plan to wear it as my something old on the wedding day.”  It brought me to tears as I shared with her mother how touched I was by her daughter’s thoughtfulness.

A few months before the wedding my son’s fiancée asked me to go with her to the mall.  She and my son had already picked out their wedding rings and she was going to purchase his that evening.  We planned to go to dinner and then do our shopping.  I called her from the car telling her I was on the dam road and almost there.  Now I have been calling the road across the lake the dam road for several years.  I don’t curse so my junior highish humor gets the best of me at times.  I call my husband every evening when driving home on the “dam road” and tell him about the dam birds, the dam cyclists, or that I’m stopped at the dam light.  I think I’m hilarious!

I say to this sweet, young girl that will soon be my son’s wife that I am on the dam road and should be at her house in a few minutes.  I catch a slight hesitancy in her response which makes me realize what I just said and I ask her if she knew that I meant I was on the road that crosses the lake.  She responded by saying she thought I was just having a really bad day!

I guess some misunderstandings are inevitable when joining a man and wife (and their entire extended families!) in holy matrimony.  Hopefully, we will be able to keep the communication lines open with a lot of sensitivity to each other’s feelings.  I love my son and BDIL (beautiful daughter-in-law), and she did wear the necklace on their wedding day.  It’s such a nice memory that I think I will give her a call on my way home today – right about the time I get to the dam road.