Bride Loses Her Head-- Gets it Back Years Later

A few years ago we redid the floors in our house from carpet to this lovely wood formica that looks like old weathered barn planks. When the carpet was being torn up, our entire house was in an uproar-- all the furniture in every room had to be moved to another room, basically. In the process, the furniture in the guest bedroom, which was where my story's "feature" was stored on the abundant bookshelves, had an "accident."

I didn't find out what happened until after the fact-- I came in and found them broken, and my flooring contractor never mentioned it to me.

So. This is the topper from my wedding cake. You see that the groom is wearing what looks like a military uniform-- it took quite a lot to fix it from the way it looked (more like a milkman before). The bride has red hair (like me) and her dress is cut sort of like mine was. I also loved the way it was sort of retro looking-- very 1950s. I loved this cake topper-- it was very me. I had the topper inside a protector plastic thing for a while. But when we moved to Texas, the protector thing got broken. I also really liked having the topper on one of the bookshelves, just sitting there, like book shelf curios do. And normally, people who wouldn't be careful with my things do not go traipsing about the guest bedroom, so I figured it was safe.

I came into the bedroom after the reconstruction of the house and found my bride & groom lying on a shelf, but her head was gone. Snapped right off at the neck. I looked and looked and did not find her head anywhere. It seemed like a terrible omen. I saved them for a long time; they sat on the bookshelf, the groom and headless bride, sort of like a creepy Adams family thing.

Well, somehow, this morning, my sister FOUND the bride's head. It was stuffed into this tote bag that one of my barbies had on her arm. The barbie had fallen over, and when Judy went to "right" her, the head rolled out of the tote bag. Sort of creepy, I know. Funny, too, though. So Judy glued her head on, and here she is, only a little worse for the wear. I'm planning to "touch up" her neck with some paint, but she doesn't look too bad!

The funniest part, though, is where the heck the head was all those years!! And how it got into the Barbie's tote bag-- which is a new addition, and was not even in the house when the initial head disappearance happened. I suspect that someone (probably one of the little kids who sometimes visit) found the bride's head in some little nook or cranny, and didn't really know what to do with it. And that's exactly the sort of thing little kids get in trouble for, so I don't blame whoever for not pointing it out.

But I am very happy to have my little bride's head back on her neck. They are now perched on a high shelf in my office, and will stay there. So maybe that can be seen as some sort of positive omen, now, too. My brain already feels less fuzzy today and perhaps the later plan of writing lots of dissertation will actually come true.

After all-- it is nice to get a little head now and then. (Drum roll please.)