Quick! Marry Before He Dies

I had a friend from Louisiana, whom I met in a singles group in Dallas. She was going through a divorce at the time. The reason I remembered this woman is because of similarities between her situation for her marriage and the situation presented in today’s For Better or For Worse.

My friend was an only child, whose father had passed away when she was young. Essentially, her family consisted of her and her mother. When she was in university, it was discovered that her mother had cancer and did not have a long time to live. There was this tremendous pressure placed on the boyfriend of my friend to propose to my friend so that her mother could see her married before she died. In fact, her mother was willing to do whatever was necessary to make this happen, including covering all the wedding expense costs and even the cost of the engagement ring. So, my friend and her boyfriend married. Her mother attended the wedding and died not too long later, with the knowledge that her little girl was married and was being taken care of.

The marriage did not last very long after their university graduation. Boyfriend and girlfriend relationships in university have a tendency to be superficial. I can well understand how a young man of 20 might find it very difficult to turn down my friend’s mother, in her situation, when he was only really dating my friend because she was very pretty. My friend did eventually find another man who wanted to marry because he was in love with her, and I believe they are celebrating their 19th anniversary this year in September.

For some reason, Elizabeth Patterson is playing this game with her wedding that is typical for many of the things that have happened in her life, i.e. she likes to let things happen to her. Her jobs magically appear. Her boyfriends magically appear. Even her cat magically appears. It is almost as if Elizabeth expects that her wedding will magically appear without her having to do a thing to set it into motion. After all, what does she expect will happen, when she says things like, “I don’t want to rush into anything! I want to take it a day at a time!” She has been presented this way several times, enough so that it is not coincidence. However, each time it happens I wonder if Lynn Johnston realizes just how ridiculous it is and how incredibly stupid Elizabeth comes off. If she doesn’t, then what we are waiting for is some person saying, “Oh, Elizabeth. I have everything set for a wedding, but my groom backed out at the last minute. I know you’re engaged, would you like to take over my wedding reservations?” I could see that happening, but maybe there is a limit of stupidity that even Lynn Johnston will not cross.

Now we are presented with the idea that Elizabeth will set a wedding date, for no other reason than she is afraid Grandpa Jim will die too soon to participate. And after all, she is planning to wear Grandpa Jim’s 1st wife’s old 1970s wedding dress; so it would be nice if Grandpa Jim was there to appreciate it and confirm to everyone that it is, in fact, Marian’s old dress. When you get right down to it, without the imminent death of Grandpa Jim, Elizabeth could go forever engaged to Anthony and never married to him.

There is part of me that wishes we are seeing a story of a very complex characterization of the relationship of Liz and Anthony. Lynn Johnston has presented compelling reasons why Liz might feel she needs to be engaged to Anthony Caine, and also compelling reasons why Liz is barely interested in the man and should never marry him. All the complex interactions are there in the strip, and it is maddening how they are never addressed.

In many respects, my desire for a better story has made it seem to me like Liz’s hemming and hawing over the wedding date was directly in relation to these opposing forces, and finally addressing the incompatibilities of the two characters in an indirect way. Unfortunately, what we probably really actually have is Elizabeth Patterson’s delay in setting a date is honestly and truly the “no rush, one day at a time” excuse. Elizabeth may well say, “I guess I will have to set a wedding date after all. Darn you Grandpa Jim for being so stinking old.”

To me, the better story is the one that close matches my friend’s wedding because of her mother. Liz marries Anthony because of pressure to get Grandpa Jim in her ceremony. Then later on, Elizabeth regrets the decision to marry Anthony Caine, for all the reasons Lynn Johnston has already presented about Anthony Caine’s questionable behaviour in his marriage and with Liz. I wish Lynn Johnston would use what she has already taken the time to set up, in telling this story.