(935) Helping her brother choose his bride?

I chose to marry a man who has a funny sense of humour. As a result there is much laughter and silliness in my house.

Since young, each of my children is given a voice. Even if a child said something that bordered on being a nonsense rhyme, he or she would be heard once. Indeed Kenneth used to quot the dozens of nonsense rhymes he memorised from those huge volumes I borrowed from the public library. It was a competition to guess at what our budding bard was trying to say. I usually win because whatever and however many books I borrowed, I was the only one who have read every single page of every volume I chose to lug home.

You see, I was so poor as a child that the few books I owned were prizes I won at school. The only reading materials I could afford to buy was old Reader's Digest that I bought at every jumble sale or fund raiser. One summer I bought and read 137 different copies at twenty cents each (I think I was 16 then) . Elizabeth asked where are they now? Good question! I would buy and sell them because my mum who is an excellent house cleaner would not allow any old copies to be kept in her house for long. It was not unusual that I had to kill silver worms and ear-wigs before those volumes were allowed entrance.

Once, I borrowed a book on Russian folk tales (when my children were young). There was a story on magic - a man unwittingly chose to marry an evil witch. Kenneth was concerned, he asked me why that unfortunate man was not protected by his family and village. I explained that it was on the man's own head because he did not ask his parents' for their blessings. He decided and went to carry out his own wishes without bringing the girl and chaperone home to meet his parents.

Elizabeth was in the car. As Kenneth (age 9) asked if he could either bring the girl home or maybe I could go to his place to check on his choice when  the time comes. Elizabeth made a gagging noise and went on to tease her brother for wanting to get married. Then she said that she also wanted a say in determining whom her brother marries. Now, if you have met Elizabeth when she was young, you would have realized that her overwhelming sanguine and strong choleric make up would not allow anyone to wriggle out of making a promise to her.

In the end, I explained things this way to Kenneth: suppose if there are five maids awaiting, and Kenneth wittled the choice down to three. And each of the three are just as good and desirable, then there is no harm letting his busy body bossy sister choose the lucky bride. Since Kenneth is very fond of Elizabeth, he promised that if it happens as I postulates, she would be given a say.

Kenneth is a few hundred miles away now. He is in a Linguistic course now and the ratio of women to men is like 3:1. So far, the only girl he kept talking about (from his study group) has a boy friend in another faculty. Yes, he remembered his promise to his sister. Whether he carries it out or not is entirely up to him. If he does, he would have the extra blessing and certainty that he made the right choice. For Elizabeth has a perfect track record in choosing girl friends for herself, I have not had the slightest problem in telling her to distant herself from any of her choices. The only girl I disapprove of is her good friend's best friend. Now that her good friend is in College A, that best friend is in College B, they hardly see each other. And Elizabeth had  not met them in six months. No sweat!