"The favor of a reply is requested," she read at the bottom of the invitation, and knew that, for the sake of how much she loved the person asking, she would go.
It wasn't going to be easy, being in the same room with the other woman, and only her desire to see her niece happy would make her do it. She would go, and smile, and concentrate on talking to her own children, and the nieces and nephews, and other relatives who would make sure she didn't have to actually speak to him or her beyond the "'Hello, how are you," pleasantries at the beginning.
She hadn't actually seen either of them in a couple of years, although the children had, of course. As happy as she and her now adult children were with her second husband, she still mourned the loss of her first marriage, always believing that it's never in the Lord's will for a man to dump his family like that.
Taking a deep breath, she picked up the phone to call and let her niece know that yes, of course she and her husband would be there for her special day.
Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue is Favor
Today is:
French Quarter Festival -- New Orleans, Louisiana, US (celebrate all that makes the Vieux Carre special, antiques, food, and 275 hours of musical entertainment; through Sunday)
Genocide Memorial Day -- Rwanda
Goddess Karna's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (goddess of crying and wailing)
Ghode Jatra -- Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (Horse Festival)
Houston Art Car Parade -- Houston, TX, US (the world's oldest and largest art car parade is on Saturday; festival through Sunday)
International Beaver Day -- celebrating the species that restores valuable wetlands
International Snailpaper Day -- relax today with a hard copy of a regular, old fashioned newspaper
Metric System Day -- officially adopted in France on this day in 1795
Motherhood and Beauty Day -- Armenia (day the Armenian Orthodox Church celebrated the Annunciation; it is the only Church to celebrate it on this day, which is also observed as Mother's Day in this country)
Nafels Pilgrimage -- Canton Glarus, Switzerland (commemoration of the Battle of Nafels in 1388, observed with processions, prayers, sermon, and a reading of the names of those killed in battle)
National Alcohol Screening Day® 2016 -- US (find a way to get screened)
National Beer Day -- US (unofficial, the celebration of the end of Prohibition)
National Coffee Cake Day
National Health Day -- Kiribati
No Housework Day/Let Someone Else Clean Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, enjoy this one!
Pandia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a festival of Zeus; date approximate)
Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume Day -- Tanzania
St. Saint John Baptist de La Salle's Day (Patron of educators, school principals, teachers)
Women's Day -- Mozambique
World Health Day -- UN
Anniversaries Today:
World Health Organization is founded, 1948
Prague University is chartered by Charles IV, the first university in central Europe, 1348
Birthdays Today:
Russell Crowe, 1964
Anthony Drew "Tony" Dorsett, 1954
Jackie Chan, 1954
Janis Ian, 1951
John Oates, 1948
Gerhard Schroeder, 1944
Francis Coppola, 1939
David Frost, 1939
William Hodding Carter III, 1935
Wayne Rogers, 1933
Daniel Ellsberg, 1931
James Garner, 1928
Ravi Shankar, 1920
Billie Holiday, 1915
Walter Winchell, 1897
Bronislaw Malinowski, 1884
John Joseph McGraw, 1873
David Grandison Fairchild, 1869
W.K. Kellogg, 1860
Walter Camp, 1859
William Ellery Channing, 1780
William Wordsworth, 1770
St. Francis Xavier, 1506
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"South Pacific"(Musical), 1949
"Monsieur Beaucaire"(Operetta), 1919
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major,"Eroica"(Beethoven Op. 55), 1805
Today in History:
Attila's Huns plunder Metz, in northern France, 451
Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I issues the first draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the basis for much civil law even today, 529
A crowd in Florence, Italy, storms the Convent of San Marco, demanding Fra Savonarola be turned over as they rebelled against his Bonfires of the Vanities and interference with trade, 1498
Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu, 1521
Michael Cardozo becomes the first Jewish lawyer in Brazil, 1645
American pioneers found Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent settlement of the new Northwest Territory, 1788
France adopts the meter as the standard measure of length, 1795
The Mississippi Territory is established, 1798
English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches, 1827
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and the only one of a federal politician, 1868
Nebraska establishes an 8 hour work day, 1891
Texas Oil Company (Texaco) is formed, 1902
An eruption of Mt. Vesuvius devastates Naples, 1906
Dr. K. Winfield Ney performs the first brain tumor operation under a local anesthesia, at Beth Israel Hospital, 1923
Using phone lines, the first long distance television image is sent, of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, from Washington, D.C. to NYC, 1927
Booker T. Washington becomes the first African-American depicted on a postage stamp in the US, 1940
Syria is officially recognized as independent from France, 1946
Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech, 1954
Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco, 1956
IBM announces the System/360, 1964
The publication of RFC1 marks the symbolic birth of the Internet, 1969
Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter, 1978
During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk, 1983
Mars Odyssey is launched, 2001
Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent, 2009
Following the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, Joyce Banda becomes President of Malawi, 2012