Before the Marriage Blessing in the Temple ...

Tina reminded me very much of some of the mums I'd come across at school - she was shrewd, energetic, a little scary - I found myself framing careful phrases, as I would for one of those Boudiccas in her fearsome Mitsubishi Outlander - 

Tina drove a bus in Solihull - I think Nick may have been her second husband - he was, he said, in recruitment - 

But despite my initial nervousness, I was  captivated by Tina, by her warmth and northern charm - she told me how she'd scampered through the shopping centre in jeans and tiara on her way to her wedding - she had a passionate affinity for India - 

Before she left with Nick for the blessing in the temple, she showed herself in her sari - she was excited and happy, suffused with tenderness - Babbagi had dressed her, winding the rich cloth around her hips - 

Nick wore a long collarless tunic, a pristine dhoti - he was barefoot and his chin newly shaved -  

I thought of all the wedding photographs I'd seen, of how joy transfigures us, of how precious love is -