Read Chapter 28: — THE WEDDING QUESTION

Eleanor and Adrian had planned a small January wedding.

After Arthur's diagnosis, she offered to postpone it.

Arthur refused.

“I'm losing memory, not my calendar yet.”

Margaret said, “That is not reassuring.”

Arthur ignored her.

On the morning of the ceremony, he forgot where he had put his tie and then remembered a poem Eleanor had recited at age nine word for word.

Memory, the doctor had warned them, would not disappear in order.

Lily wore a dark green dress and carried no flowers because she decided flowers were “too weddingy.”

Before they left, she asked Adrian privately, “Do I have to call you Dad after?”

“No.”

“Ever?”

“Never, unless you want to.”

“What if I call you Adrian when I'm forty?”

“I'll be grateful you still call.”

She considered this.

Then took his hand.

They married at York Register Office with family and a handful of friends.

Peter came with Mia, with whom he had finally started a real relationship after months of trying not to. Susan did not attend but sent a card addressed to Eleanor and Adrian both. It was progress measured in stationery.

Victoria sent a bottle of champagne and a message:

You two are annoyingly well suited. Try not to become smug.

At dinner Arthur stood to speak.

He forgot the first sentence.

The room went still.

Then Oliver whispered, “Tell the one about Ellie forgetting her lines.”

Arthur smiled.

“That one I remember.”

He told the story.

Eleanor laughed and cried at the same time.