How my twin sister got new legs

MAJOR LIFE ANNOUNCEMENT: My twin sister Joy is engaged!!!

TO BE MARRIED!!!

AHHHHHHH!!!!

And for some reason everyone is oddly asking ME how I’m doing.

“Did you know?”

“How are you feeling?” 

“How are you doing?”

“I'M THRILLED!” I say wholeheartedly, wondering what the fuss over me is all about.

WHAT AM I? A SAD BRIDGET JONES???

(I choose vodka...and Chaka Khan.)

“I mean...it’s like you’re losing your left leg,” was my friend Meredith’s thoughtful interpretation.

“What?!??!” I said. 

“AM I ABOUT TO CHOP OFF MY LEFT LEG??? WHERE IS IT GOING???”

I thought about that analogy for a while.

The thing is, Joy and I already had practice missing a leg.

When I moved back home to New Orleans in 2010, leaving Joy in South Carolina, it was a heart-wrenching experience for the both of us. And as shaky as we were on our ONE LEG EACH, she quickly found support in Daniel.

Daniel, a brilliant scientist who is also from New Orleans, who...ya’ll....actually went to high school with Joy but they never spoke back then, has, for the last several years, been Joy’s new leg.

A worthy replacement.

I suppose I didn’t have to necessarily go anywhere for her to find a new leg.

Because maybe that’s a good analogy for marriage anyway, finding someone who helps you walk through life without letting you fall too far backwards or fall forward splat on your face.

And over the past few years, during numerous visits and especially now that I moved back, I’ve been able to witness how their relationship formed and developed and got stronger and how they really balance each other out. (haha...so... many leg references.)

Joy and Daniel both get each other. They’re both comfortable around one another, they know each other’s nuances. 

If that game show “Newlyweds” was still on TV, they’d win all the points and they’re not even married yet.

They make each other laugh, they both go out of their way to be kind and sweet to one another.

But the most wonderful thing about Daniel, in MY opinion, is that he’s a perfect support system...even supporting the fact that Joy has had a perfectly FINE leg for the past 31 years and it will never go away.

She just found a new one, one she can stand comfortably on, one that she didn’t even know she was missing. And now not having it would be crippling.  

When Joy flopped on top of me yesterday, waking me up from my nap, like she always does, I was about to shout, “my alarm is set already!” but then she exclaimed, “Daniel and I are engaged!”

Somehow I knew it. When she told me that she and Daniel were going to take a sunset walk on the beach with their dog (“his idea”) I thought in my head, that’s....super romantic.

TWIN E.S.P.!!!!

“I knew it!” I replied immediately (because, really, this is all about ME haha) 

We both screamed and Joy was happy crying and shaking and overflowing with love because she had long decided that Daniel was the person she wanted to be with for the rest of her life.

For the rest of the night, I saw her staring at her beautiful ring, the one engraved with the words “hand in hand”....SWOON...and saw her tearing up looking at it, so glittery and shiny and perfect.

I know it sounds weird, but their entire aura has changed. They were closer than I’ve ever seen them before, grinning from ear to ear.

“You know you’re going to be my maid of honor, “Joy said immediately, then quickly added, “I mean, I don’t  even have to ask you.”

I know people are asking ME questions because Joy and I are twins and best friends and have always put each other first.

And now Daniel will come first, because that’s what happens when you marry someone.

But I’ve long seen this coming, long seen how they look at each other—sometimes ignoring the outside world for a few seconds—always meaning what they say and saying what they mean.

(And DUH...no one just gets a new leg without their old leg approving...come on people.)

So I tear up NOT BECAUSE I’M A SAD BRIDGET JONES, but because I’m so happy for Joy for locking in her fairytale. 

I tear up because I’m sappy, and this is the truly the happiest news we’ve ever experienced. And everything is going to change in a wonderful way.

I bought her a bridal magazine to thumb through last night and they toasted with champagne and I truly, truly, truly can’t wait to see how the world will unfold next.

SO...CONGRATULATIONS JOY AND DANIEL!!!!

May you walk on always, together, forever.

-Jenny