A Different Sort of Prayer

In a small town in Italy
There is a statue
Where people go to pray

She is there now
At the statue
With a picture of her daughter
And a note

She places the photo down
And kneels
While people either walk past her
Or kneel down as well

It would have been their honeymoon today
And they would have gone to Italy
But not to some statue
To pray

Their daughter is getting married
In eight weeks
And she has to plan the whole thing

They haven't determined the procedure
For a father-less wedding

She supposes that she'll be the one
Walking Meredith down the aisle

She'll make the toasts
And the arrangements
And the payments

And the father-daughter dance
Will be left out of the program
And everybody will notice

She was angry when she left
As she had been for awhile
And Mer only asked one thing from her

Please do not come back angry

She does not want her mother to be angry
On the happiest day of her life

It seemed like a fair request

So she went to the little town
And found the pretty statue
And knelt down
With a note
And a picture
And a prayer

The picture is of Meredith
And her father
On her fifteenth birthday
When the entire family
Attempted to find the Grand Canyon
And instead wound up at Rich's Rattler Farm

She took the photo of her daughter and husband
In front of Bobby the Boa Constrictor
The Farm's poisonous cartoon mascot

On the note was the following sentence:

'A man should be there for his daughter's wedding.'

The prayer was simple

'Show me how to do this.'

When she was done praying
She stood up
And started walking
Back to where she'd asked the cab
To wait for her

On the way there
She passed a funeral procession
Coming out of a church
And it seemed fitting
And cruel
At the same time

She noticed a long line of mourners
All holding each other
And crying out
At different points
Like a chorus of tears

There was a picture of a man
Held by a little old woman

He looked like he was Peter's age
And she assumed the little old lady was his mother
But she couldn't seem to find the wife
Among the mourners

At the back of the line
Was a young woman
Barely walking
Slowly becoming separated
From the rest of her family

That was when she spotted a woman her age
Step apart from the pack
And go to the young woman

The woman her age tenderly put her arm
Around the young woman's waist
And the resemblance between them
Was clear enough
That she knew she was looking at a mother and a daughter

The mother, and presumably the widow
Supported her daughter
In a way that was not rushing her
While at the same time
Allowing her to walk
And catch up to the rest of the family

All the while whispering something in her ear
That made the young woman stop crying
And even begin to smile a little bit

After the procession had turned a corner
And were out of sight
She looked back at the statue
Where she had left her picture
Left her note, and said her prayer

Then she looked up
At the sound of a dove flying towards the roof
Of the church

It almost looked like the dove
Was trying to fly directly into the sun

And she closed her eyes
And said a different
Sort of prayer