When I first heard that my seventy-year-old mother-in-law was getting married, I genuinely thought it was a joke. Not a cruel one—just one of those family rumors that gets exaggerated over Sunday dinner. But no, it was real. She had met a man in her nursing home, they had fallen in love, and now they were planning what could only be described as a full-scale wedding. Invitations, flowers, catering, a rented hall, even a live band. I remember staring at my husband across the kitchen table, waiting for him to laugh and say he was kidding.

He didn’t. Instead, he told me his mother had already picked out a dress—ivory, not white, but still bridal enough to make me blink twice. I didn’t know how to process it. At her age, I thought, wasn’t it a little excessive? Shouldn’t she be content with quiet companionship, afternoon tea, and visits from her grandchildren? Why the pageantry? Why the drama of bouquets and vows and dancing? I didn’t say all of that out loud at first, but I felt it.