I realize the title could be the beginning to something quite clever, but it's actually quite literal. Leslie, the girl I nannied for many years, got married on Friday in Purgatory, Rhode Island.
At my wedding, I wanted everyone I ever knew there - and so naturally - I wanted the same for Leslie. I wanted to be there for her. To cross another life transition with her. I followed her through middle school and high school graduation, college graduation, several moves across the country, world travels where she met up with us in Turkey, and now back in San Francisco.
I wanted to go, of course...to the wedding...but I chose not to because it would mean taking Tomris and leaving Teoman...and I couldn't do that. Even if Tolga was home and not traveling, the idea of leaving Teoman is too much - I couldn't leave one child and take the other, travel to Rhode Island, and come back to work within a few short days.
But my heart was there with Broc and Leslie. Leslie is my sister. Her family is my family. When I think of her family, I think of the times we had together - shared and gone, never to be replicated as we grow and get older. Those were sweet years together. Her humor and intelligence. Their lives and mine as we grew up together. Leslie is older now, but she is still Leslie and I would love to be a part of these events for the rest of our lives. But they are not my family, and I have my own family now .. so we are all moving on without each other. Writing new stories, with new adventures - but all Friday and night, they were who I thought of ... they were my life at one point, and I could imagine the wedding planning now. Her parents and their antics, her brother and his.
I don't know how Renee did it - worked full time, kept me at the house, and raised two strong, funny, independent, and confident children. She credits me, and I credit her. Renee wore a beautiful dress and had her hair done up with her daughter. Both she and Artie walked Leslie down the aisle and gave her away on the shores of Rhode Island.
Leslie is living back in San Francisco now. A place she lived for several years about ten years ago. She is working for Apple, already living with her now husband. They have traveled abroad together, gone to graduate school, and I'm sure planned a future like her mother.
They are Jewish, and many a mazaltov's were said. She will be fine - she has always been well adjusted and close to her mother. Practical, frugal and shrewd when necessary, but with her own touches of grace and wants and desires. I'm finding it hard to write about her from afar, but I sent her several texts on her wedding day - sending my support, and jokes, and wonderings about what everyone was doing.
Her dress was modest, covering her shoulders. Lacy, with an open back, and fitted around the hips before flowing out once again around her feet. No train, her hair was tied back, and their kiss captured in the waning light was accented by a long graceful hand that held her now-husband's cheek.
I don't know what Leslie struggles with these days, but I hope I can always be a sister for her - and a friend when she needs. Leslie has many friends, from many different walks - but I have watched her grow and succeed and my heart aches to be there for her always because I have always been on her side: supporting and admiring the person she is...wanting the best for her. We never fought or disagreed - strange to think of now, and I'm not sure if it was because she was never open enough for this, or if she was just too timid in those younger years. She surely inherited some of her mother's restraint - but seeing her parents having aged, I have a renewed commitment to always be a part of her life. And Steven's.
I don't know if we will ever get a chance to be together again, but I won't leave them.
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