their politics, their interests didn’t align. But they made it work—and they were a sweet couple for the most part. But love, as they say, is blind. When Mark proposed to Alice, we were all invited to the scene to help surprise her. “Please, Mom,” Mark said on the phone. “Alice isn’t close to her family, so to see you and Dad there will be good for her. She’ll know that she’s welcomed and supported.” “Of course, honey,” I told him, already envisioning their wedding in my head. I swallowed my reservations and offered to pay for the wedding. James and I had put money away for Mark’s studies, but he had always gotten bursaries which paid for it all. “We can just use that money for the wedding, Claire,” my husband said over lunch the day after the proposal. “It’s the best thing we could do for them,” I agreed. “This way they can save up to move out of that small apartment.
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