But my mom noticed a strange woman at the wedding that tagged along all through out the day. She had a gloom about her, and was always a step behind, looking sad and forlorn. She even fought her way to sit in the front seat of the wedding car. Who is this crazy woman? thought my mom. All through this my dad kept silent, and it was too hectic for my mom to continue to care.
(mom and dad in their wedding car)
Then at the banquet that night, my mom noticed the exchanged looks and began to suspect that there was something between the strange woman and my dad. Eventually, someone told her that she was my dad’s ex-girlfriend. They told her my dad and Nga’s entire story. My mom was of course angry, she’d never heard of this woman until then. After most of the guests had left, Nga was still there! She was sittting at another table, looking sad and confused. My mom made up her mind and went straight to her table, to the horror of my dad and a few older women, who thought she was about to start a fight.
But that wasn’t her intention, my mom is one of the most kind-hearted person I know. She felt really sorry for the woman. She asked her, “What is your name?”. But Nga didn’t reply, and just stared at her. She then asked, “Do you really love him that much?”. Nga still didn’t answer.
My mom thought, well, my granddad had three wives. It’ll be okay if my husband have two. So she placed her wedding veil on the woman’s head. She then took off her ring and my dad’s ring and placed them in my dad’s hand. She asked the manager of the restaurant to set up a new table, they were going to have a second ceremony.
And so, that day, my dad married two women within a few hours of each other. I know this sounds crazy, I didn’t believe it either when mom first told me the story. Who would be so open-hearted that she would allow her husband to marry a different woman on the same wedding night? But, knowing my mom’s unusual generous personality, I couldn’t completely dismiss it. Then one day, we found a photo in her old stuff, and my doubts were even further appeased. It was a photo of my mom, my dad, and a woman to his right also wearing a bridal veil. I snapped a picture of it with my phone, because I knew I would want to write their story down one day.
(my dad and his two wives, my mom is on the left, Nga on the right)
After that, the three of them lived together in quite happy circumstances, according to my mom. The two of them were like sisters, and did everything together. She said Nga stayed with us and was our second mom until Vinny and I were three or four years old! However, I don’t really have any recollection of her.
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