Some More Thoughts on Being the Mother of the Groom

Yes, I know that my son Josh and his wife Jenelle have been married for almost two months now. But I still treasure the memories of their May 6th wedding day--snowflakes and sunshine all mixed together with the smiles and the (happy) tears.

I also treasure the memory of dancing with my son.

A few days before the wedding, Jenelle confided that Josh was having a hard time finding a suitable song for the "Mother of the Groom" dance. Not wanting to be a control freak--I was really still too worn out from my recent illness to do too much of that--I spent a bit of time trying to find a song or two to suggest.

I googled the phrase "mother son dance songs" and came up with a slew of web sites--but very few decent songs. Some enterprising folks have written songs just for the occasion, with titles like Song for Mama--I am not "Mama"--and A Song for My Son and I.O.U. (Ode of Thanks to Mother.) I don't know. It just felt like they were trying too hard, you know?

And songs like The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face or I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song were love songs when I was a teenager. Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion? No. Edelweiss? Huh? I'm still trying to figure out the mother-son-wedding connection there.

I finally suggested My Wish by Rascal Flatts--after dancing to it with my husband in the kitchen. I then asked Josh to listen to it, saying, "This is just a suggestion. If you don't like it, we can dance to something else."

Honestly, I didn't care if we hummed to ourselves while we danced. I just wanted to share that traditional moment with my son.

Dance we did--to My Wish. The chorus goes like this:

But more than anything, more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

And while we danced, I told my son that I loved him. That I was proud of him. That I knew he would be a good husband.
And I shed some tears.

Now when I hear that song, sometimes I smile and sometimes I cry. It will always take me back to a beautiful spring day in Colorado when I danced with Josh--held him close--and let him go.