Divine Intervention

Well, once again the nuptials of Charles and Camilla have hit a snag. This time it’s a big snag, as the pope died this week. Now please don’t take this the wrong way, I respect the fact that the pope has died, so I’m not commenting on that but more the timing of it.Charles must be thinking that no one wants him to get married to Camilla, including God. It’s bad enough when your parents don’t come to the wedding and when it seems the world is against the whole thing but God is another story. That’s got to be the final nail in the coffin of what has otherwise been a comedy of errors. This must be the ultimate in bad luck and none of the wedding books even mention this breech of ettiquette. Many weddings have been plagued by rain, snow storms, tornedos but I don't believe I've ever heard of the ultimate head honcho giving his seal of disappoval. The speculation is endless on his involvement.. maybe he was a fan of Diana's, maybe he doesn't like Camilla, who knows...God works in mysterious ways.

Charles must just be wondering what else can possibly happen. He has no doubt grown up with having things go his way and then the pope has the audacity to die. It's hard enough to plan a wedding without having God intervene. Next it will be a problem with the seating plan, whether the wedding fruitcake will arrive on time, Camilla's dress might not be ready, the hairstylist and make-up artist could be delayed, the flowers could be wilted, all possibilities with any wedding. We can only cross our fingers hat Prince William won't forget the rings and that everyone will arrive on time. Rain on their wedding day is a good sign but if Charles and Camilla see each other beforehand they might as well call the whole thing off.

The royals have shown the utmost of propriety with changing the date of the wedding so that Charles can attend the funeral. Buckingham Palace has stated, “The Pope’s funeral must take priority”. Once again duty has come before happiness. But to do otherwise would open the royals and Charles in particular to criticism and we know they don't need any more of that. Let’s hope that Charles won’t be grumbling in public about it, possibly wondering why another royal couldn’t be sent in his place. As much as Charles would like his wedding to be a private, it’s inevitable that there would be media interest, however given the circumstances, the wedding might be relegated to a small paragraph near the classifieds section. The pope’s death is a very important event and it would ultimately overshadow anything in comparison. People have worked themselves up into frenzy over Camilla’s title and we’ve got the pope lying in state at the same time. Now that Rainier III has died, will the wedding be delayed to pay respects to him too? I would think that Charles, as the designated mourner in the family will need to make some sort of appearance for Rainier as he was Europes longest reigning monarch. At least once he's done in Rome he can swing by Monaco and wear the same suit to his wedding at the Guildhall.

When Diana died we had a similar schedule conflict, in that case it was who to mourn as Mother Theresa died in the same week. It almost put all of the global hysteria into perspective; someone important had actually died and we were canonizing Diana. Once again, there must have been some sort of divine intervention. God must have been saying, “people get real here” to no avail. Yes Diana planted a lot of trees and opened a few hospital wings but let's give Mother Theresa some column space too. I guess she didn't look as good as Diana while she helped the less fortunate. In this case people are focusing on the pope instead of Charles and Camilla. The Queen must be feeling a bit smug at the moment. I doubt Charles and Camilla will have four million people show up and take photos with cell phones at their wedding.

Having to change the date completely throws everything off -the guest schedules, the venue availability, all of the souvenirs with the original date splashed all over them. Wouldn't you hate for that to happen at your wedding? Luckily there are people who collect these items in the hopes that they will increase in value otherwise we might have a surplus of tea towels to dispose of. I wonder if this episode will go down in history as the most disorganized royal wedding. No doubt every book and magazine article on Charles and Camilla will mention it, reminding them over and over and over. No wonder Charles gets cranky at photo-calls. Once the wedding is over and things return to normal, will Charles and Camilla live happily ever after? God only knows.

© Marilyn Braun 2005