Sometimes in my collecting travels, I come across the most interesting things. Babies getting their first ever pictures, family portraits. Military pictures. But those don't interest me. We all know my focus: Wedding portraits and marriage certificates. The Start of Happy Ever After.
But its not always, is it? The Start of Happy Ever After. Its not. And it took my newest find to put that thought firmly on the front of my mind. A couples HEA can end. Death? Distance? Indifference? Yeah...
Anyway...before my thoughts run away with me. Where was I? Oh yes, Its not always HEA and my find from last month proves it.
Our Bride is Eleanora and I inherited her history. Its so rare that I know about my Brides. Usually I just know a name or a little snippet (if I am lucky). With Eleanora, I got a lot more. In her box, (Goodness, that is so sad!) there are pictures of every stage of her life. Baby, girlhood, her First Communion, high school photo, Eleanora in her cap and gown. And finally, as a beautiful bride.
At first, I felt like a voyeur. An oddly specific one at that. I only wanted the wedding pictures and screw the rest. I dug more into the box with the Mr's encouragement and found the rest of my Brides story. And it broke my heart. While I think Eleanora had a good, if ordinary, childhood, I don't think married life was good to her.
Snippets of her life were found. Like a flipbook of her past. Receipts from deliveries, old mortgage papers, letters and pictures from friends. I went even deeper into the old Rubbermaid container and found more. And I wish I hadn't. I believe in Happy Ever After like a child. I love fairy tales and know most by heart, so to find what I found made me sad and my heart ache. Divorce papers. The end of a tale. The end of a story of two people once in love.
Eleanora must have believed in love...because there were two sets of those papers. Two different marriages. Maybe she tried a third time and it was her HEA. Or maybe she gave up. Who knows? But this is where her story ends for me. In that old, cracked Rubbermaid container, I hold her story.
I truly hope that the beautiful bride with eyes full of hope and love on her Wedding Day found her Happy Ever After with her Prince.
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| Eleanora. |
May you find your Happy Ever After,
xoxo
Jane
