An Appointment With A Plumber. A Daughter’s Corsage.

On the afternoon of Sarah’s prom, I was up in her room taking a few pictures as she and Taylor finished getting ready. In the midst of our conversation Taylor suddenly said, “Oh, I just remembered! I left my corsage at my house; I’ll have to run back and get it.”

I let out a mini gasp, not loud enough for the girls to hear, but a gasp, nonetheless. Because Sarah had no corsage.

I had briefly thought about it earlier in the week; however, I wasn’t even sure if a girl who goes to a prom unescorted by a guy is traditionally supposed to wear a corsage and after pondering that question for a while, the whole thing sort of slipped my mind.

But here we were, a couple of hours before the prom and it appeared as though Sarah was going to be attending it with a corsaged friend in an un-corsaged state.

Oh dear.

I had watched Sarah’s face when Taylor mentioned her corsage and I didn’t see any signs of great distress there; she just kept calmly doing what she was doing as though the fact that she might be the only girl at the prom without a corsage was not at all worrisome to her.

But you know how we moms are. When we find out a detail like this has been overlooked on an important night in our offspring’s life, we are genetically programmed to do things: 1) panic  2) leap into action.

I didn’t say anything to Sarah about a corsage because I wasn’t even sure if we could get one at such late notice. Instead, as soon as I could possibly manage it, I nonchalantly left her room, bursting into a sprint as soon I was out the door. I got on my cell phone and started to call around to a few places to see if there was even one corsage left anywhere. The first place I called had one corsage left but it was $35.

Thirty-five dollars? That’s more than I paid for Sarah’s dress!  My bargain loving heart positively quaked.

I told them I would think about it and then I gave Steve a quick call to see if I could get some masculine input into my mini crisis.

As it turns out, Steve was having a crisis of his own.  He had gone over to the church mid afternoon to fill our baptismal tank. When he went back to check on it an hour or two later, he discovered that a pipe had worked loose underneath the tank and instead of filling the tank, the water had been running out all over the floor behind the stage.

Happy day.

He explained his crisis. I explained my crisis.  And then we pondered each others’ crisis for a moment, trying to figure out a plan.

The first issue was finding a corsage we actually could afford. Steve quickly made a call or two and found that the floral department of a grocery store could make a corsage for just $20.  Good news. 

Then we just had to figure out who was going to drive 40-minutes, round trip, to pick it up.  (When you live on a lovely island, most things are a long way away.)

I was in the throes of helping the girls finish getting ready so that we could get out the door for pictures before they went their own way to eat dinner and go on to the prom. Steve had some rather soggy and messy issues to deal with and he also had a plumber headed his way to make repairs. However, his immediate crisis had passed since he had gotten the water turned off.

After discussing our options a few minutes more, Steve said he would go on the The Corsage Run so that I could finish helping the girls.

When I told Sarah a few minutes later that her dad had gone out to get a corsage for her, she scrunched up her shoulders in a very dear gesture and said, “Awwwwww.  How sweet!” 

He arrived back home in his grubby work clothes to be greeted with the sight of the two splendidly arrayed ladies all ready to leave– but not before both corsages were donned by both of them.

Sarah was so  very appreciative of her corsage and of the effort it took Steve to get it for her. I was even more appreciative of a husband who would take time out of a sloppy Saturday afternoon to run this important errand.

Here’s Sara striking a pose in her lovely dress with her lovely corsage.

Bottom line of the story?

When a young lady looks for a man to marry, she may consider his bank account, his fancy car, his family connections, or his dreamy appearance.

But all of those things lose their importance rather quickly if he is not the kind of man who will delay an appointment with his plumber in order to pick up a corsage for his daughter. 

Trust me on this.