It took Alice some careful work to remove Trudi’s misguided enthusiasm for butterflies. After the morning tea break, she sat next to Elsie and carefully positioned the sixty-five-year-old wedding photo onto the page. It had been taken outside the Catholic church and the bride’s magnolia brocade train draped elegantly across the stone steps. A young Elsie held a bouquet of roses and her groom stood tall and dignified in a new suit, gazing at his bride as if he couldn’t quite believe his luck. Despite the passage of many years, bearing five children, losing one to cerebral palsy and grieving for the man she’d shared her life with for sixty years, the essence of the young bride was still evident in the 88-year-old woman.

“How’s that?”

“If you straighten it, we can put the invitation on an angle.” Elsie’s hands were crippled with arthritis and although she couldn’t physically place the scrapbook items where she wanted them, she had a very good eye for design.

Alice did as she was asked, positioning the beautiful wedding invitation with its silver print on heavy—now yellowed—paper. Its existence suggested a love match and Alice realized that when Elsie had been her age, she was in her second decade of marriage. “So, Frank was the love of your life.”

“No.”

Alice stared at the woman who’d only ever spoken in glowing terms of her husband.

“Close your mouth, dear, the flies will get in.”

“But?”

“Frank was a good man, but he wasn’t the one who swept me off my feet and made me dizzy with excitement. He was the one who caught me when I fell. Good men don’t always make your heart race the first time you meet them, but they’re there for the long haul.” Elsie’s quivering fingers touched Alice’s wrist. “Don’t settle for anything less than a good man.”

Alice thought about Dan and sex. He made her heart race and now he loved her and wanted to spend his life with her. That was the trifecta. “Just between you and me, I’ve found my good man.”

Elsie’s rheumy blue eyes sparkled. “There’s nothing better than a man who loves you and wants to give you the world.”

“We’re going to travel.”