"Nope," she said. "I plumbed all Arthur's depths at least thirty years ago and I'm still fond of the old fellow. The luck part I agree with, though." She handed me three red tulips. "Here. For your kitchen table. Now tell me about the wedding. I can't believe Barbara chose today to move, and I had to keep the baby." She pointed to the monitor beside her on the walk and smiled. "Listen to him snoring. He's so precious."

Mitzi is like a lot of people in our generation whose children have postponed parenthood. By the time you get grandchildren, you are overcome with the miracle of it. Our Alan and Lisa have two boys that we adore, but they came at the usual grandparent age, and I was still much involved in my teaching career. I'm beginning to see that there's something akin to awe, though, in these older grandparents. I also realize that's probably how I'll feel when Haley has a baby.

I told Mitzi about the wedding. She listened to me with one ear and to the monitor with the other. The dress, the music, flowers, cake. The helicopter.

"Oh, my. Debbie went whole hog, didn't she? I wish I'd been there."

"It was quite a wedding," I agreed.

A tiny chirp from the monitor sent Mitzi scurrying. "Got to go. When Mary Alice gets the pictures, I want to see them," she called.

"Save a whole day!" I unwrapped Woofer's leash from my legs and woke him up. "Come on, lazy."

A car pulled up beside me. "Hey," Sister said. "Get in."

"What are you doing here? I thought you might still be at The Club."

"I just came from there. Everybody left at one time. One minute there was a big party going and next minute it was just me and the waiters. I started home and then decided I wanted to do a postmortem."

"Who died?"

"What do you mean 'who died?' "

"A postmortem?"

"On the wedding. You know." Sister looked a little down. Tired.

"I'll meet you back at the house," I said. "I'll be there in a minute."

Mary Alice nodded and drove off. I don't know why I was surprised to see her looking sad. After each of my children's weddings, I've had to go to bed for a couple of days. All the excitement and planning and then it's over. An emotional roller coaster. And things are never the same again.

Mary Alice was sitting at the kitchen table and Fred was getting each of them a beer when I walked in.

"You want a Coke?" he asked. I nodded that I did.

"Gatlinburg?" he said, handing Sister her beer. "They flew to Gatlinburg?"