Yesterday I ran into an acquaintance mom that I hadn’t seen for a while. She told me she’d read and liked my essay on keeping my last name and giving it to my daughter.
“I wish I’d kept mine,” she said. She laughed ruefully. Her only sibling was a sister, she said, and so their generation was the end of her family name.
For my part, I wished for something of comfort to say. But if you want to be a Jones instead of a Johnson, well, there’s not much I can offer. Names really aren’t a choice you can go back and forth on. Once you’re committed either way, you generally stay that way unless the relationship ends.
So, as we begin the wedding planning season that follows the Christmas engagement season, my wish is that all the brides-to-be choose wisely. Don’t say “I wish,” after “I do.”
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