Caroline's Wedding

Caroline’s Wedding is a story about two sisters, mother and their dead father. The narrator of the story is Gracina Azile, Caroline’s older sister. She has got her American citizenship certificate and waiting for her American passport to come. Her father Carl Romelus Azile died of cancer. In America, he married another woman to bring his family to America and get them legal papers.  Grancina’s mother Hermine Francoise Azile is from Ville Rose, Haiti. She is a kind of woman who believes in cultural myths about things and little old fashioned. Grancina’s younger sister Caroline Azile is in love with American man named Eric, her Bahamian fiancé. Caroline was born without her left forearm.  When her mother was arrested in the sweatshop immigration raid, a prison doctor gave her a drug shot to keep her calm. That shot caused Caroline condition. Her mother always wanted Caroline to marry a Haitian man, but she loved an American man. Her mother didn’t like Eric that much. She thought that he doesn’t love her daughter. He is just trying to be a noble man by marring her. So, her mother would make Caroline bone soup everyday to detach Caroline from Eric. It was her belief that soup can be a miracle to do that. Their mother believes in arrange marriages, because that’s how she got married. Grancina and her mother usually go to a mass in New York, where the priest would recite the names of 129 Haitian Refugees drown at the sea. He also talked about a woman who gave birth to stillborn child and drown herself in the sea. Her mother told Grancina that her father used to write letter to her in Haiti from New York. When their father died, their mother asked them to wear red panties under black clothes, so that her husband won’t come back to them. But the girls never believed in it, they always wore black panties, because for them their father was welcome to come to them. So, that means their father meant a lot for them. And probably that’s the reason they used to see their father in their dreams, and the girls always wanted to share their feeling with their father. Even when Caroline was about to get married, she wanted her father to prove the man that she loves in her dream. Caroline believed in a simple marriage. So, her wedding was held in a conference room. Judge Perez married them. After wedding they had lunch at Le Bistro, took picture at Bontanic Garden, and then Caroline was gone with Eric. Her mother was very upset. They probably haven’t had a normal mother and daughter talk, but they were so close to each other. After Caroline left, she sent her mother flower with lots of love. Grancina’a mother was very emotional that day. So, she showed Grancina her proposal letter and talked about her wedding. When Grancina got up the next day she got her American passport and went to her father’s grave in Rosedate Queen, and tell her father about the wedding and also that she has become an American Citizen. When she came back home, she talked to Caroline on the phone and helped her mother making the soup. So, this was the story of Caroline’s Wedding. I think it is have a lot connection with the other stories. This story’s characters are like they were the same characters in the other stories. For example, writing letters. I think story is basically talking about a mother, who loves her country, culture, and her cultural believes. It’s like any other typical mother who has a lot of dreams about her children. Just like a good mother, who always have concerns about her children’s future. I think it was a good story to read and learn about Haitian mother’s cultural believes and her daughters response to it.