Fit to Print Volume 25 Issue 1 March 2016 | Page 12

M e m b e r Pe r s p e c t i v e by Christine Jelley Two Blue Dresses One Mother of the Groom’s Inspiration Mom and I flipped through an old issue of People after my wedding. It showed pictures of Caroline's wedding. Mom pointed to a picture of Jackie. “That's what I should have worn,” said Mom. “Look at her.” I had to admit, it was perfect. It sounded like she regretted our choice; Jackie did better. We didn't know about personal shoppers or stylists back then. Plain and simple, Jackie nailed it and we didn't. C aroline Kennedy got married in July 1987, one year before my own wedding. She wore a custom Carolina Herrera short-sleeved gown dotted with delicately embroidered shamrocks. Jackie wore a pale green silk sheath dress, also Carolina Herrera, with ivory tea-length leather gloves and a beige clutch. Every seam was flawless; every inch was Camelot. A photo showed Jackie leaning on Ted Kennedy's shoulder, dabbing a tear. She held a linen hanky. I was married a year later. It was the late 1980s and my mother and I chose a cobalt blue gown with a sequined bodice as her Mother of the Bride dress. She wore a sharp black blazer over it and a pair of platinum diamond and sapphire earrings, a gift from Dad. My father showed me the earrings before he gave them to her. They were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Mom wondered aloud what Dad had been thinking; expensive jewelry was not her style. She wore them along with the cobalt blue gown to my wedding. Growing up, my Mom and I were excited to wear the metal daisy flower brooches that were shrink-wrapped along with bottles of Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid as an incentive to try the new green upstart. I wore one to play outside and pinned the other three we had collected onto each of my friends' summer tops while we were making mud pies and grass salads. We were busy, happy housewives with heavy pins pulling small holes into the light fabric. 12 “Everything hurts,” I blurted out My older son is getting married in May. I vowed to do mom proud and shun the glitzy, the too young and the too old, push shiny things away and be a modern-day Jackie. If Mom were still here, she would have shopped with me. My fate was in the hands of my vision, the Internet and the UPS man. The first dress arrived, and I immediately called Eileen Jacinth for personal training. <> uttered these magic words: “I am all about prevention. I want to dance all night at my kids and grandkids’ weddings, too.” She reintroduced me to circuit training and the caramelcushioned equipment. It felt very natural to return to these old friends, who have been upgraded twice since my last goaround. She wanted to get me into the black weight-lifting section, too, but I refused. Caramel cushions say, “We're in this together.” Black metal says, “Earn it.” We moved into the room adjacent to the boutique, which must have an actual name, to stretch. Eileen showed me how to hook two firm, looped straps across a beam and thread a bar though the loops. Good news – I can bend. At our next meeting, she showed me how to roll out the muscles on a hard black roller placed on the floor. When Eileen demonstrates, there is an inherent grace. Not so when I try it - my moves have “You Tube sensation” written all over them. I do them anyway. In my twenty years at Fitness Incentive, I never saw anyone smirk at an attempt to get into shape. When I get discouraged or lazy, I remember the dress. I didn't get a Jackie dress. I ordered and returned three dresses until I coincidentally found a modern version of the dress my mother wore twenty-nine years ago. It's a Ralph Lauren cocktail dress, navy blue, hitting just above the knee. The bodice is studded with matte sequins that continue down the long sleeves. The skirt is made from a weighty jersey fabric with gentle ruching at the waist. I hadn't seen it in person so my anticipation was significant. I tore the packing tape and lifted the lid. A Princess Moment! I held it up and sniffed it, as if it would have a scent. It was “The One.” Of course, I will wear it with the fancy earrings. Just like Mom did. ~~end~~ “We have five months,” Eileen said. “We can get a lot done in five months. I really needed to get back in the game. My brothers had unexpectedly died, middle age struck hard and getting older is not for sissies. Grief and eggplant parmigiana can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time. Add new aches and pains and my primary goal had become how to be pain-free, not fit. I explained my concerns to Eileen. “Everything hurts,” I blurted out. It turns out that pain-free and fit are not mutually exclusive. The same Eileen that had worked me (to the bone) in a Fantastic Four Challenge Spring 2016 FIT to Print Christine Jelley, a longtime FI member, will be Mother of the Groom this spring.