Once
upon a time (which is how all good stories begin) in far
off England it became the tradition for the bride to be
given a sixpence to put in her shoe on her wedding day.
This tradition began many, many years ago in the reign
of Edward VI in 1551 when a gentleman who could not
afford to give his bride a ring gave a sixpence instead.
Later, in the early 1600's, the Lord of the Manor often
presented sixpence as a wedding gift. It was also used
as a dowry payment from the parents of the bride to the
bridegroom. Since the days of Queen Victoria, the
sixpence has been a lucky omen for financial wealth and
happiness for the bride; placed in the bride's left shoe
before the ceremony.
Now
it so happened that in this modern age, a young lady is
ready to get married and her beloved is unable to find a
sixpence for her to carry. The young man mentioned his
problem to his fairy godmother (who as all good fairy
godmothers do) immediately went to work to solve his
problem.
It
just so happened that she is a modern fairy godmother
who knew about e-mail and computers and things like
that. She had made contact with several people in
England who were going to come to a conference she was
helping at. She e-mailed these "strangers"
(she had never met any of them), and explained the
problem. A beautiful young lady wanted to get married
with all the traditions of her new home but her beloved
couldn't find a sixpence to bring her happiness. The
fairy godmother asked if anyone could help her out. Just
one little sixpence could bring so much joy to a new
bride.
One
day in April while the fairy godmother was at work (in
this day and age even fairy godmothers have to
work---how else could she afford the computers and
e-mails) there appeared before her a stranger who
introduced himself as "the gentleman from
England". He proceeded to hand over not one
sixpence, but two of them. He wished the bride and the
groom all happiness and then quietly left.
The
fairy godmother was very grateful and immediately took
out the coins to look at them. To her great joy, one of
the sixpence was minted and dated 1961 (the groom's
birth year) and the other one was minted and dated 1966
(the bride's birth year).
Now
the young couple will be able to have a double helping
of happiness in their wedding, but they do have one
problem - should the bride wear both sixpences or should
the groom wear one? Decisions…decisions…decisions.
The
fairy godmother, of course, doesn't care, she is just
happy that she could provide a measure of joy for their
wedding day.
