walked in. So was Ruby. They held hands and gazed up at the high ceilings, the beautiful moldings, the wood paneling, the chandeliers, the grand staircase. It took Eleanor’s breath away for a moment too. It was a trip back in time for her. She hadn’t been there for fifty-one years, since she and Alex and her parents left it in 1930, when her parents moved to Lake Tahoe, and she and Alex to the little apartment in Chinatown. So much had happened since then.
The event coordinator took them around and explained how the rooms could be set up, and Eleanor smiled as she explained. “We had dinner guests seated here,” Eleanor said dreamily, “and in an enormous tent outside. We tented the whole square,” she explained, and the woman smiled.
“Have you rented here before? I’ve only worked here for four years.”
“I used to live here,” Eleanor said quietly, “I grew up in this house. It was my family home. My husband and I were married here.” The event coordinator looked vastly impressed.
“Then you know much more about the house than I do. We can set up the ballroom for dinner guests too. And of course you know we can’t use the original gardens. They were sold many years ago and there’s a home in that space now. But we have some pleasant paths where people can walk around on a warm night.”
They walked through all of the reception rooms and Eleanor had to resist being flooded by memories in every room—her parents, Alex, Christmas dinners they had given, balls, her debut, her wedding. The rooms were filled with ghosts for her, but they were happy memories, and Ruby and Zack were deeply moved when they left.
“Oh, Grandma, I love the house so much. Would it upset you too much if we rent it for the wedding?” She was concerned, and Zack was still floating from the beauty of visiting the Deveraux home.
“No, I’d love it,” Eleanor said generously. “Your grandfather and I would be delighted if you get married where we did. I wish we still owned the house so we could really do it the way we used to. I noticed that the school requires you to end an event at midnight. Our wedding, and my debut, went on until breakfast the next morning.”
“That sounds like fun.” Zack grinned. “Egg McMuffins for everyone!”
“More like blinis and caviar.” Eleanor smiled at him.
“Wow!”
“I think you two can really have a fabulous wedding there,” Eleanor said, looking as excited as they were. In a way, it felt like going home. “Shall we do it?” Both young people nodded, and she told Alex all about it that night. She told him what had changed and what hadn’t. She had wanted to explore the upstairs but it wasn’t allowed. They had made changes, in order to institutionalize it a little for the school, but the alterations weren’t too extreme. She hadn’t been shocked by it, only touched by her flood of memories, mostly happy ones of the good years, not the end.
She confirmed it with the event coordinator the next day, and Alex wrote a check for the deposit. Tim dropped it off at the Hamilton School on the way home. Zack and Ruby had chosen Saturday, October third, as their wedding day, two days before her grandparents’ anniversary. They had four months to plan the wedding, and Eleanor got busy with it. She had to call the florist, a caterer, look for a band the young people would want to dance to, a wedding cake baker. There were a myriad details to attend to, and it was a happy task. Eleanor had everything organized by the time they left for Lake Tahoe at the end of July.
Before they left, Ruby came home one afternoon to meet with her grandmother. The enormous box was waiting in her bedroom. The exquisite Jeanne Lanvin wedding dress was still in its original box, with all the accessories that went with it. Eleanor had promised to show it to Ruby so she could decide if she wanted to wear it, or get another dress. She hadn’t made her mind up yet whether she wanted to wear a new dress or an old one. She wasn’t sure her grandmother’s dress would fit, or would look too dated. The dress was fifty-two years old, but the design that Eleanor and her mother had chosen had been timeless. She removed all the tissue paper around it and lifted