The Tradition Of An Old Wedding Dress

The Tradition Of An Old Wedding Dress
By Paul McCann

Hazel was a hard working woman who owned and managed The Clean Plate Cafe , in Sydney City . She had established the Café with her brother Bill , who passed away in leaving Hazel on her own to run the Café .
When Hazel was 60 she found it hard to cook and clean the café so for the first time she advertised for help The first person she interviewed was a young boy just out of school . His name was Jim and she took to him immediately offering him a full time job in her Café . .
Jim’s had left his parents home in the outback to find work in the city .
He had no experience working in a kitchen before but was adaptable to change and Hazel was their to guide him with what needed done ..
After a few months Jim’s innocence and sweet charm was beginning to win Hazels heart . She had always wanted a child of her own but running the café took all her time and restricted her possibilities to finding someone she could have a steady relationship with .

Even though there was a big age difference Hazel started to have romantic feelings for Jim and they were far more than the maternal kind , as a matter of fact , they were of a romantic nature. She began to lavish him with gifts and spoke to him about starting a business partnership . Even though there was forty years difference in their age it never bothered Hazel .
She hired extra staff so as she could have more quality time with Jim who was touched by her generosity . At first Jim though that Hazel was just a nice old lady but after a while he realized that Hazel was in love with him .
Some days she would ask Jim to go for a walk around the Harbour or through the Botanical gardens . Then one day out of the blue Hazel proposed to him.
Jim didn’t know what to say but he knew that if he married her he would become a very wealthy young man and so without any hesitation he said yes to her proposal of marriage .

The wedding was of considerable local interest at a Sydney Church of England building . On the night of the wedding Hazel daughter of Mr and Mrs Mackerlane and Jim second son of the Mr and Mrs Armstrong were married . .
The church was decorated by Hazels business associates and she was escorted down the aisle by her bank manager of 40 years Mr O’Sullivan, who often had a notion she might be interested in him . .
Hazel walked up the aisle of the church in the same wedding dress her Mother had wore and her Mother before had wore . There was a long history about that wedding dress that made it more of a family custom and Hazel was happy to have the chance to continue that tradition .

John Barnes a family friend of Jim's parents had flown in from the bush to be best man at the wedding . Jim's parent were not in attendance as they didn’t agree with their son marrying a woman who was older than they were .
A hired opera singer rendered her voice for the entrance song with the finest fingers to ever touch the keys of a pipe organ Mr Chris Smiley who always smoked a pipe when he played .
The wedding was a a bit of a fairytale come true however nothing was said and Hazel was in love and that’s all that mattered to her and all Jim could think of was the money he would inherit one day . After the wedding there was a reception at the Clean Plate Cafe with a short list of people invited . The honeymoon was kept secret during the entire evening . Toast’s were made to honour the happy newlyweds before they made their departure . They arrived at the quay to board their ship on a three week honeymoon cruise around the Mediterranean .

A few weeks late when Hazel didn’t return from the cruise , Jim was left to explain how she had accidently fallen overboard the ship one night after a few glasses of campaign , Jim tried to put on a grief stricken face during all of the questions that were being asked .

Hazel’s body was never recovered and shortly afterwards Jim inherited Hazels fortune as well as collecting a large amount of money from the life insurance policy Hazel had recently taken out making Jim the sole benefactor .

Two months later Jim sold the Clean Plate Café for a six figure amount and set up a wholesale supermarket chain selling goods for those with an exotic taste .
A strange appearance was found one morning about a mile out from Sydney harbour when a fisherman pulled out a body from the water . After police had made an investigation they discovered that it was Hazels body and even more strange was the fact that her body had no sign of decomposition .
Jim was told that her body would be placed into a special mortuary for further investigation . Jim was in a state of shock and retreated to the seclusion inside his two story mansion on North Shore
.
Three days later Jim was found dead in his stately home . There were no suspicious circumstances around his sudden death , Some people stated that Jim must have took his own life but there was no evidence of that and it was also ruled out by the police. . After Jims funeral , everyone had said how generous Jim had been to have left all of his wealth to Hazels bank manager Mr O’Sullivan who was over the moon with his new found wealth .
After Jim was buried another strange thing occurred when Hazels body started to decompose . It was a very mysterious case and no one had any answers to why all of these strange events had taken place
,
Mr O’Sullivan ended up in the headlines after he was to marry a young and beautiful woman by the name of Hazel Doright who was about forty years younger than himself . On the day of their wedding no one really noticed the resemblance of the wedding dress the bride was wearing . It looked almost an identical copy of the dress worn by Hazel Mackerlane on the day she married young Jim Armstrong .

The End
By Paul McCann