My Mother-in-Law Wore a White Gown to My Wedding

When I got engaged, my future mother-in-law and I had what I thought was a warm relationship. In hindsight, the signs were there. She asked a lot of questions about my dress. She asked what colour my dress was. She asked, more than once, whether I was "really sure" about white.

The week before the wedding she mentioned she had bought something "cream" to wear. I did not think much of it. Cream is fine. Cream is a normal thing for a mother of the groom to wear.

On the day, she arrived a full hour before any other guest, which struck the planner as odd, and swept in wearing a floor-length white gown. Not cream. Not champagne. White, satin, with beading at the bodice and a small train that whispered along the floor behind her. She had done her hair up with a comb that could have held a veil. From across a room, in a photograph, you would have called her the bride.