Categories > Cartoons > Daria > Daria's Party Addition
Daria's Party Addition – 23 – Post-Thanksgiving & Epilogue
By Dr T
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Dolly Frasier knew the right people, and knew that money talked. She had the invitations for the ceremony in hand before noon that Saturday morning. By then, Daria had arranged with Jay to talk with his lawyers on Monday, in part to make certain Helen couldn't cause the couple problems (they would confirm she could not do anything about the marriage after a bit of research) and also to arrange for Daria to legally change her name to Frasier after the ceremony. (She would, however, still publish her fiction under Morgendorffer.) Jay would also make certain there were no problems with how Daria and Jack had been claimed by their parents on the previous year's taxes.
Daria and Jack drove back to Boston that Sunday. Over the next few weeks, they would need to finish their classes, take their final exams and turn in various projects, and fully move from their dorms to their new apartment. Dolly had given them a check for $7500 to finish furnishing it (which Daria and Jack would take care of before fully moving in). They would consider themselves fully and totally moved into the apartment late on the afternoon of the 17th (although they were sleeping in the apartment most nights before then) and left to go back to Lawndale on Saturday the 19th.
Meanwhile, even though she would be the maid of honor, Jane had been given an official invitation, and had also been given four more to hand out. One went to Trent, to his bemusement. The other three, Jane handed out that Monday after Thanksgiving during lunch to Jodie, Mack, and Brittany.
Needless to say, the ceremony announcements caused quite the stir at Lawndale High! Quinn was inundated with questions she could not answer, and really all she and Jeffy could say (beyond confirming the facts) was that no, Daria wasn't pregnant and yes, Daria and Jack were already married. Jane had fun referring all other questions to Quinn, knowing that it was annoying her immensely.
Despite Jake warning her to the contrary, Helen did look into the legality of Daria's underage marriage, and found that it was indeed too late to legally object. In her heart, she knew she wouldn't have done so at this late date even if she still could have – after all, Daria could easily change that reaffirmation/blessing ceremony into a legal marriage. All objecting would accomplish at this point was split mother and daughter even further apart. As upset as she was, Helen didn't want to make things worse, even though she could not bring herself to send Daria any apologies. It would take a few years for these bad feelings to fully be resolved between them.
Helen would have been shocked to learn what her mother decided to do for the couple. Tess had spent a large fortune on Erin's wedding, very nearly into six figures (as the wedding had been at very short notice at a very expensive venue, which she had mostly totally booked). She did not actually have the cash on hand to do the same for Daria, even if she had wanted to. She did have more than enough to give the couple a check for $20,000 at the reception, as a combination wedding/Christmas present, with the proviso that Helen only be told they had been given a check but had agreed not to disclose the amount. They would save most of the amount but would use a little to have a delayed 'second honeymoon' over their spring break, returning to the cabin where they had spent their first anniversary.
When she found out after the ceremony that her mother had given the couple a 'reasonable cash gift,' Helen would be more than just curious.
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That Sunday before the ceremony, Daria was surprised when Joan asked her to step into her bedroom. Daria did not know Joan, now a first year law student, at all well. To Daria's surprise, Joan didn't want to talk about the wedding or Daria and Jack's relationship.
"I need to start telling family members something," Joan told her. "I figure it's easiest to start with you."
Thinking back, Daria could not recall hearing that Joan had been in any sort of relationship. "Gay?" Daria simply asked.
Joan blinked. "Is it that obvious?"
"No, I just figured if you were just not interested at all, you wouldn't be mentioning now," Daria replied. "If you had a serious boyfriend, it wouldn't be this big a deal to you. If you were having an affair with some married guy, you wouldn't mention it at all. If you were pregnant or had some health issue, you'd talk to your mother first, even if was difficult to open up to her."
"I see. Well, I've suspected for some time," Joan told her now sister-in-law. "I knew in high school I didn't care much for boys, but I never really even had a crush a girl, either."
"But you've met someone now?"
Joan nodded. "I think it will be serious. I'll tell Mom and Dad if it turns out that way. Do you think Jack will mind?"
"I'd be surprised if he does," Daria replied honestly. "We both know a number of lesbians, and at least one gay couple. Shall I tell him after we get back to Boston?"
"That will be fine…."
Daria smiled very slightly. "Be sure to email me; we can talk about things."
"Thank you." They were glad they could start connecting, and would become friends over the upcoming months. Becoming close to Jeff took a while longer, but they would become real friends after a few years.
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In the end, Daria would have a few less people on her side of the aisle at the blessing/reaffirmation than her maximum estimate. A frowning Helen and sulking Quinn were two. (Quinn did not exercise her option of having a date, believing Jeffy would escort her at the reception. She was sulking because Jeffy had brought Stacy as his date.) Jake of course would be walking Daria down the aisle and Jane would be standing with her. Both grandmothers attended, as did her maternal aunts and paternal Aunt Joyce, again none with escorts. While Erin came with her mother and grandmother, Brian did not, not that anyone missed him.
Trent of course came, but Monique chose not to accompany him. However, it turned out that Nick (the Spiral's bass player) not only DJed but could even do more traditional dances and similar wedding reception tunes. Daria had Dolly hire him for the reception when Jane suggested it, and then invited him and the other two members of Mystic Spiral to the ceremony for the fun of having them there. As far as Lawndale High was concerned, Brittany was invited mostly because it had been her party where Daria and Jack had met. She of course plus-oned Kevin. Jodie and Mack each received their own invitations. The band members would enjoy the elaborate cold buffet (almost too over the top for Daria's taste, but everything was delicious), sparkling wine, and cake even more than the rest of the guests. Kevin also enjoyed the buffet, but the looks Brittany sometimes gave him did make him nervous.
In addition to those people, Daria had invited the two Raft professors who had facilitated her internship, one of whom was now her unofficial Paleontology advisor/mentor. Neither had current partners, but both still were happy to be present.
Jack had a larger family and a few more close friends, so his side was almost twice as full. Jerry acted as his best man.
However, just before the ceremony started, Daria and Jake stood together at the entrance to the back of the church, waiting for the music to play the bride in. Looking at his daughter, wearing all the jewelry her grandmother had given her, including the tiara, Jake thought she looked confident. Still, he asked, "Ready, Kiddo?" Jake frowned, "I guess I shouldn't call you that."
Daria looked up at her father. "Do you know why we're doing this?"
Jake looked puzzled, so Daria explained, "Jack agreed to the idea for two reasons: because I wanted this and because it will please Dolly. I wanted this for just one reason: the only thing I missed at my wedding, basic as it otherwise was, was your being there. I knew even well before I got married, never mind before your heart attack, that you felt one duty you really wanted to perform more than any other was to walk me and then Quinn down the aisle, to show how much you love us." Daria had been surprised, after his heart attack, that Jake had confessed to wanting to walk her down the aisle. Not her and then Quinn, just her. "I love you, and I hope I didn't hurt you too much by eloping."
"You're more than making up for it," Jake assured her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I know I haven't been the best father…."
"The best? Maybe not, but you've loved me for who I am, not just because I'm your daughter." 'Like Mother loves her somewhat undefined and undifferentiated daughters,' Daria mentally added before continuing. "You may not have always understood me, but you never really wanted to change me. You accepted me as I am." 'Again, unlike Mother, at least since first grade,' Daria mentally added. "So the best possible father? Maybe not, so you'll just have to be satisfied with having been a very good and above all and even more importantly, a very loving and very caring dad. Thank you."
"I can live with that," Jake said, smiling if with a tear.
"And you can even call me 'Kiddo'," she added just as the music began. The doors leading into the church opened, and up near the altar, Jane, in a bright red outfit, was smiling at her best friend. Jack, and his friend Jerry, were standing nearby in their tuxes – Jack with a green bow tie, Jerry with a red one.
Jake proudly led his daughter down the aisle as the congregation stood.
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Saturday, August 23, 2025
Lawndale Assisted Retirement Community
Helen Morgendorffer stiffly made her way out to the front porch of the cottage she shared with her husband. She had turned 78 just a few weeks before this, and was glad that joint stiffness was her main problem. Granted, that stiffness was not her only infirmity, but it was her primary one. Many, perhaps most, of her neighbors, even those years younger, were in much worse physical shape, and more than a few were nowhere nearly as sharp as she still was mentally.
Fortunately, Jake was still almost as mentally alert as he had ever been, just a tad more forgetful. Considering his chronic health issues (only partially solved by his now-second pacemaker), overall, he was not doing too badly. Still, he was sleeping more and more these days: including his frequent naps, he was sleeping nearly twelve hours a day. However, the two of them had managed to make it to this point, the week of their fiftieth wedding anniversary. With a little luck, they both might last at least an additional thirteen months, when they could celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of their having met as college Freshmen.
Helen eased herself down onto her rocking chair, waiting and reflecting on many things as she sat patiently and slowly rocked in the chair. For one set of her thoughts, she considered the nearly thirty years that had passed since they had moved to Lawndale; how differently things had turned out from what she had hoped for back then. Granted, she had made partner in the law firm somewhat sooner than she had expected (although not as soon as she had hoped when she had taken the job), but corporate law and its associated areas had never been what she had hoped to practice when she started law school. Still, it had more than paid the bills. She had stuck it out with the firm until she had turned 70, but had no regrets about having retired from the partnership. She had spent the next five years doing volunteer pro bono legal work, and had enjoyed it much more on the whole than anything she had done for years. At this point of her life, however, she was past missing practicing law.
Jake had retired at 67, but that had been due to the combination of his first pacemaker and Quinn. Quinn had never found anyone. In fact, although Helen did not know this for certain, Quinn had never had an actual lover of either gender, although she had done some light experimentation with both men and women while in college. After Quinn had graduated, she had joined Jake in the consulting business, and really expanded it into a very successful enterprise. Quinn was an expert in branding and rebranding small businesses on-line. The combination of her sense of style and a ruthlessness she had shared with her mother continued to ensure her success.
When the family had moved to Lawndale, Helen would have guessed that Quinn would have been the daughter who would have married, and likely would have had multiple children. Instead, Quinn didn't even have a houseplant to take care of, never mind any sort of pet. At this stage of her life, Quinn was even more business-oriented and driven than Helen had ever been. Of course, while she really had no personal life, Quinn was making a fortune, and hoped to retire by 55 if not before. Exactly what she might do when she retired, Quinn was uncertain about. Still, she had set that as her goal. If she continued to go as she had been, Quinn would certainly be able to retire at 55, although Daria for one wondered if Quinn would want to stop then, never mind if she would be able to even if she did wish to.
As for her elder daughter, Helen still disliked how Daria and Jack had eloped all those years before whenever she thought about it, but for the most part that was now well in the past. The pair had gone to different graduate programs in Boston, both earning PhDs in Paleontology. To their surprise, they had both managed to turn post-doctorial positions with the Smithsonian's National Natural History Museum into full-time positions.
Jack had not missed a summer's digging season since the first summer Daria had joined him in Boston. In addition to having done work in six states since then, he had been involved (and these days often led or at least co-led) expeditions in Alberta, Argentina, three different European countries, three different African countries, and even two each in China and Mongolia as well. He had a first-rate international reputation and was even well-known to most casual science and paleontology fans from numerous television and internet programs and appearances, both as a presenter and commentator.
Daria Frasier was not quite as well-known by the general public as Jack, but she also had a very solid professional reputation. Between the two of them, Jack and Daria had discovered and named well over thirty species of various archosaurs and mammaliaforms/mammals dating from the Triassic to the Paleocene. Both had numerous professional publications, and had co-written a short series of popular science books on various paleontology areas. Daria was also listed as the primary writer for most of Jack's television and internet programs (co-writer on the others), while appearing in at least a few scenes in nearly all of them. Meanwhile, Daria Morgendorffer was a moderately successful novelist, with her twelfth novel about to appear in print.
To Helen's surprise at the time, in the spring of 2011 Jason Jacob (JJ) Frasier had been born – Jane had been the only person other than Daria and Jack themselves to know that the couple had decided to try and have a child before they announced her pregnancy. This had kept Daria from four years of summer expeditions, but other than that, she had never voiced any complaints, not even to Jack, despite having proclaimed since her tweens that she had no interest in having children. Despite her previously oft-proclaimed reluctance/disinterest, Daria had since proven herself a caring and even affectionate mother, while Jack was a very doting father. Both made certain, however, that JJ was not as spoiled as either Quinn or Jeffy had been – although they both suspected their son was actually about as indulged as they (especially Jack) had been.
After the first few years of Daria's spending the summers at home with JJ while Jack was on research trips, JJ spent many of the following summers with his Uncle Jeff and Aunt Stacy plus one with 'Aunt Jane.' Jeff and Stacy had married immediately after college. Jeff had managed to have a five-year NFL career (if never as a starter), and he and Stacy had four children. Both loved to have JJ with them over summers, and JJ and his cousins got along very well. The previous and this past summer, however, JJ had gone to science camps – he was interested in physics and space rather than paleontology, but his parents were happy with his current choices.
Helen looked up as an older Toyota sedan pulled up to the curb and Jane got out. Jane and Daria had stayed very close over the years. While Jane still created her own individualistic paintings, she made most of her livelihood from portrait paintings of the rich and famous around the DC and Baltimore areas. She, her husband (an accountant of all things by profession, but a well-regarded amateur sculptor as well), and three sons shared the old Lane house with the still-unmarried Trent, who managed to scratch a living playing bars and the occasional jingle-work Quinn sent his way. Jane kept a close eye on the Morgendorffers – her own parents were gone, she and Trent were estranged from their other siblings, and Helen and Jake had looked after her more than her own parents had during her mid-to-late teen years.
"I'm here first?" Jane asked, a bit surprised as she stepped onto the porch.
Helen nodded her head. "Quinn is supervising the recording of that jingle Trent wrote for that new client – a bakery. She's picking up the cake from the client at the studio and should here by Twelve-thirty."
"And where are the rock hounds?"
Helen nodded towards the street. "That's them now."
Jack pulled up to the curb behind Jane's car in his latest truck. Daria came out first and stretched, but JJ was out of the tiny backseat as soon as his mother gave him room to escape. Except for slightly wider hips due to having given birth, Daria was still almost as slim as ever, weighing less than twelve pounds more than when she had graduated high school – of course, she had also stopped growing taller by then as well. Unlike Quinn, who had been 'touching up' her hair color for a few years, Daria still sported a natural mane of brownish auburn hair, currently cut much as it had been in high school. As it usually was when she had been on a summer expedition (this year the pair had been in Germany), Daria's hair was streaked with red highlights. Jack, still as muscular as ever, was greying and had a slight paunch these days, but it looked good on him, making him look like the distinguished scientific authority he was. Helen and Jane noticed that, as he sometimes did, Jack had grown a beard over the summer digging season, but that Daria had already made him shave it off, leaving a slightly less-tanned outline around his jaw.
JJ ran over to the porch. Unlike how his parents (especially his mother) had acted at his age, he usually dashed everywhere when possible. "Hi, Grandma! Hi, Aunt Jane!" His hair and hair color were both the same as his mother's. but otherwise JJ more closely resembled Jack. He carefully embraced his slightly fragile grandmother, but gave Jane a much stronger one.
"Dang, you're getting tall, kid!" Jane teased. She looked at her best friend, approaching hand-in-hand with her beloved. "You're feeding him too much!"
"That's okay, so long as he grows up and not out," Daria replied. Jack gently squeezed her hand.
Only Jane knew that the two had had some problems adjusting to marriage in the first months living together. However, both had been determined to make their marriage work. Neither, especially Daria, were compromisers by nature. However, both made compromises (some were as simple as the fact that the Frasiers had always had a maid service, and Jack had never done housework – Daria was not about to do it all. What most of the other compromises were – especially what had apparently been larger ones – Daria had never explained). Still, when one of them made one of those hard compromises, the other made certain to show how much it was appreciated. It helped that they were both always fully committed to each other and were still madly in love, and lust, even as they were approaching their 30th wedding anniversary in less than three years.
Neither Jack nor especially Daria liked to admit that in this final respect, both were much like both sets of their parents.
Jane knew that she would have had a difficult time committing to her own marriage, with the attendant needed compromises, without Daria and Jack's example to draw from. As much as Jane had supported Daria throughout her marriage, Jane knew that Daria had done even more for her.
"Hey, Kiddos!" Jake said happily from the doorway, using the frame and a cane to fully support himself. When Jake had entered his late fifties, after realizing he had outlived his father, and had done a much better job helping to raise his children, he had started to mellow out again. While he knew he was physically going downhill, he was content with his life – whatever Quinn's problems with personal commitment, she was otherwise successful and happy. Daria was living a life she truly enjoyed with a man she had loved and adored for decades and had a great son. Jake felt he had done well for his family, and both of his daughters would have agreed.
"Hey, Grandpa!" JJ carefully hugged his grandfather.
Helen smiled. Despite all her worries; despite all the errors she could now (somewhat) admit to, things had mostly worked out, especially for herself and for her elder daughter.
Other than some new aches and pains, she had little to complain about. So, like her husband, like her elder daughter, Helen thought life had, on the whole, been good.
The End. Thank you for reading!
By Dr T
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Dolly Frasier knew the right people, and knew that money talked. She had the invitations for the ceremony in hand before noon that Saturday morning. By then, Daria had arranged with Jay to talk with his lawyers on Monday, in part to make certain Helen couldn't cause the couple problems (they would confirm she could not do anything about the marriage after a bit of research) and also to arrange for Daria to legally change her name to Frasier after the ceremony. (She would, however, still publish her fiction under Morgendorffer.) Jay would also make certain there were no problems with how Daria and Jack had been claimed by their parents on the previous year's taxes.
Daria and Jack drove back to Boston that Sunday. Over the next few weeks, they would need to finish their classes, take their final exams and turn in various projects, and fully move from their dorms to their new apartment. Dolly had given them a check for $7500 to finish furnishing it (which Daria and Jack would take care of before fully moving in). They would consider themselves fully and totally moved into the apartment late on the afternoon of the 17th (although they were sleeping in the apartment most nights before then) and left to go back to Lawndale on Saturday the 19th.
Meanwhile, even though she would be the maid of honor, Jane had been given an official invitation, and had also been given four more to hand out. One went to Trent, to his bemusement. The other three, Jane handed out that Monday after Thanksgiving during lunch to Jodie, Mack, and Brittany.
Needless to say, the ceremony announcements caused quite the stir at Lawndale High! Quinn was inundated with questions she could not answer, and really all she and Jeffy could say (beyond confirming the facts) was that no, Daria wasn't pregnant and yes, Daria and Jack were already married. Jane had fun referring all other questions to Quinn, knowing that it was annoying her immensely.
Despite Jake warning her to the contrary, Helen did look into the legality of Daria's underage marriage, and found that it was indeed too late to legally object. In her heart, she knew she wouldn't have done so at this late date even if she still could have – after all, Daria could easily change that reaffirmation/blessing ceremony into a legal marriage. All objecting would accomplish at this point was split mother and daughter even further apart. As upset as she was, Helen didn't want to make things worse, even though she could not bring herself to send Daria any apologies. It would take a few years for these bad feelings to fully be resolved between them.
Helen would have been shocked to learn what her mother decided to do for the couple. Tess had spent a large fortune on Erin's wedding, very nearly into six figures (as the wedding had been at very short notice at a very expensive venue, which she had mostly totally booked). She did not actually have the cash on hand to do the same for Daria, even if she had wanted to. She did have more than enough to give the couple a check for $20,000 at the reception, as a combination wedding/Christmas present, with the proviso that Helen only be told they had been given a check but had agreed not to disclose the amount. They would save most of the amount but would use a little to have a delayed 'second honeymoon' over their spring break, returning to the cabin where they had spent their first anniversary.
When she found out after the ceremony that her mother had given the couple a 'reasonable cash gift,' Helen would be more than just curious.
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That Sunday before the ceremony, Daria was surprised when Joan asked her to step into her bedroom. Daria did not know Joan, now a first year law student, at all well. To Daria's surprise, Joan didn't want to talk about the wedding or Daria and Jack's relationship.
"I need to start telling family members something," Joan told her. "I figure it's easiest to start with you."
Thinking back, Daria could not recall hearing that Joan had been in any sort of relationship. "Gay?" Daria simply asked.
Joan blinked. "Is it that obvious?"
"No, I just figured if you were just not interested at all, you wouldn't be mentioning now," Daria replied. "If you had a serious boyfriend, it wouldn't be this big a deal to you. If you were having an affair with some married guy, you wouldn't mention it at all. If you were pregnant or had some health issue, you'd talk to your mother first, even if was difficult to open up to her."
"I see. Well, I've suspected for some time," Joan told her now sister-in-law. "I knew in high school I didn't care much for boys, but I never really even had a crush a girl, either."
"But you've met someone now?"
Joan nodded. "I think it will be serious. I'll tell Mom and Dad if it turns out that way. Do you think Jack will mind?"
"I'd be surprised if he does," Daria replied honestly. "We both know a number of lesbians, and at least one gay couple. Shall I tell him after we get back to Boston?"
"That will be fine…."
Daria smiled very slightly. "Be sure to email me; we can talk about things."
"Thank you." They were glad they could start connecting, and would become friends over the upcoming months. Becoming close to Jeff took a while longer, but they would become real friends after a few years.
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In the end, Daria would have a few less people on her side of the aisle at the blessing/reaffirmation than her maximum estimate. A frowning Helen and sulking Quinn were two. (Quinn did not exercise her option of having a date, believing Jeffy would escort her at the reception. She was sulking because Jeffy had brought Stacy as his date.) Jake of course would be walking Daria down the aisle and Jane would be standing with her. Both grandmothers attended, as did her maternal aunts and paternal Aunt Joyce, again none with escorts. While Erin came with her mother and grandmother, Brian did not, not that anyone missed him.
Trent of course came, but Monique chose not to accompany him. However, it turned out that Nick (the Spiral's bass player) not only DJed but could even do more traditional dances and similar wedding reception tunes. Daria had Dolly hire him for the reception when Jane suggested it, and then invited him and the other two members of Mystic Spiral to the ceremony for the fun of having them there. As far as Lawndale High was concerned, Brittany was invited mostly because it had been her party where Daria and Jack had met. She of course plus-oned Kevin. Jodie and Mack each received their own invitations. The band members would enjoy the elaborate cold buffet (almost too over the top for Daria's taste, but everything was delicious), sparkling wine, and cake even more than the rest of the guests. Kevin also enjoyed the buffet, but the looks Brittany sometimes gave him did make him nervous.
In addition to those people, Daria had invited the two Raft professors who had facilitated her internship, one of whom was now her unofficial Paleontology advisor/mentor. Neither had current partners, but both still were happy to be present.
Jack had a larger family and a few more close friends, so his side was almost twice as full. Jerry acted as his best man.
However, just before the ceremony started, Daria and Jake stood together at the entrance to the back of the church, waiting for the music to play the bride in. Looking at his daughter, wearing all the jewelry her grandmother had given her, including the tiara, Jake thought she looked confident. Still, he asked, "Ready, Kiddo?" Jake frowned, "I guess I shouldn't call you that."
Daria looked up at her father. "Do you know why we're doing this?"
Jake looked puzzled, so Daria explained, "Jack agreed to the idea for two reasons: because I wanted this and because it will please Dolly. I wanted this for just one reason: the only thing I missed at my wedding, basic as it otherwise was, was your being there. I knew even well before I got married, never mind before your heart attack, that you felt one duty you really wanted to perform more than any other was to walk me and then Quinn down the aisle, to show how much you love us." Daria had been surprised, after his heart attack, that Jake had confessed to wanting to walk her down the aisle. Not her and then Quinn, just her. "I love you, and I hope I didn't hurt you too much by eloping."
"You're more than making up for it," Jake assured her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I know I haven't been the best father…."
"The best? Maybe not, but you've loved me for who I am, not just because I'm your daughter." 'Like Mother loves her somewhat undefined and undifferentiated daughters,' Daria mentally added before continuing. "You may not have always understood me, but you never really wanted to change me. You accepted me as I am." 'Again, unlike Mother, at least since first grade,' Daria mentally added. "So the best possible father? Maybe not, so you'll just have to be satisfied with having been a very good and above all and even more importantly, a very loving and very caring dad. Thank you."
"I can live with that," Jake said, smiling if with a tear.
"And you can even call me 'Kiddo'," she added just as the music began. The doors leading into the church opened, and up near the altar, Jane, in a bright red outfit, was smiling at her best friend. Jack, and his friend Jerry, were standing nearby in their tuxes – Jack with a green bow tie, Jerry with a red one.
Jake proudly led his daughter down the aisle as the congregation stood.
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Saturday, August 23, 2025
Lawndale Assisted Retirement Community
Helen Morgendorffer stiffly made her way out to the front porch of the cottage she shared with her husband. She had turned 78 just a few weeks before this, and was glad that joint stiffness was her main problem. Granted, that stiffness was not her only infirmity, but it was her primary one. Many, perhaps most, of her neighbors, even those years younger, were in much worse physical shape, and more than a few were nowhere nearly as sharp as she still was mentally.
Fortunately, Jake was still almost as mentally alert as he had ever been, just a tad more forgetful. Considering his chronic health issues (only partially solved by his now-second pacemaker), overall, he was not doing too badly. Still, he was sleeping more and more these days: including his frequent naps, he was sleeping nearly twelve hours a day. However, the two of them had managed to make it to this point, the week of their fiftieth wedding anniversary. With a little luck, they both might last at least an additional thirteen months, when they could celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of their having met as college Freshmen.
Helen eased herself down onto her rocking chair, waiting and reflecting on many things as she sat patiently and slowly rocked in the chair. For one set of her thoughts, she considered the nearly thirty years that had passed since they had moved to Lawndale; how differently things had turned out from what she had hoped for back then. Granted, she had made partner in the law firm somewhat sooner than she had expected (although not as soon as she had hoped when she had taken the job), but corporate law and its associated areas had never been what she had hoped to practice when she started law school. Still, it had more than paid the bills. She had stuck it out with the firm until she had turned 70, but had no regrets about having retired from the partnership. She had spent the next five years doing volunteer pro bono legal work, and had enjoyed it much more on the whole than anything she had done for years. At this point of her life, however, she was past missing practicing law.
Jake had retired at 67, but that had been due to the combination of his first pacemaker and Quinn. Quinn had never found anyone. In fact, although Helen did not know this for certain, Quinn had never had an actual lover of either gender, although she had done some light experimentation with both men and women while in college. After Quinn had graduated, she had joined Jake in the consulting business, and really expanded it into a very successful enterprise. Quinn was an expert in branding and rebranding small businesses on-line. The combination of her sense of style and a ruthlessness she had shared with her mother continued to ensure her success.
When the family had moved to Lawndale, Helen would have guessed that Quinn would have been the daughter who would have married, and likely would have had multiple children. Instead, Quinn didn't even have a houseplant to take care of, never mind any sort of pet. At this stage of her life, Quinn was even more business-oriented and driven than Helen had ever been. Of course, while she really had no personal life, Quinn was making a fortune, and hoped to retire by 55 if not before. Exactly what she might do when she retired, Quinn was uncertain about. Still, she had set that as her goal. If she continued to go as she had been, Quinn would certainly be able to retire at 55, although Daria for one wondered if Quinn would want to stop then, never mind if she would be able to even if she did wish to.
As for her elder daughter, Helen still disliked how Daria and Jack had eloped all those years before whenever she thought about it, but for the most part that was now well in the past. The pair had gone to different graduate programs in Boston, both earning PhDs in Paleontology. To their surprise, they had both managed to turn post-doctorial positions with the Smithsonian's National Natural History Museum into full-time positions.
Jack had not missed a summer's digging season since the first summer Daria had joined him in Boston. In addition to having done work in six states since then, he had been involved (and these days often led or at least co-led) expeditions in Alberta, Argentina, three different European countries, three different African countries, and even two each in China and Mongolia as well. He had a first-rate international reputation and was even well-known to most casual science and paleontology fans from numerous television and internet programs and appearances, both as a presenter and commentator.
Daria Frasier was not quite as well-known by the general public as Jack, but she also had a very solid professional reputation. Between the two of them, Jack and Daria had discovered and named well over thirty species of various archosaurs and mammaliaforms/mammals dating from the Triassic to the Paleocene. Both had numerous professional publications, and had co-written a short series of popular science books on various paleontology areas. Daria was also listed as the primary writer for most of Jack's television and internet programs (co-writer on the others), while appearing in at least a few scenes in nearly all of them. Meanwhile, Daria Morgendorffer was a moderately successful novelist, with her twelfth novel about to appear in print.
To Helen's surprise at the time, in the spring of 2011 Jason Jacob (JJ) Frasier had been born – Jane had been the only person other than Daria and Jack themselves to know that the couple had decided to try and have a child before they announced her pregnancy. This had kept Daria from four years of summer expeditions, but other than that, she had never voiced any complaints, not even to Jack, despite having proclaimed since her tweens that she had no interest in having children. Despite her previously oft-proclaimed reluctance/disinterest, Daria had since proven herself a caring and even affectionate mother, while Jack was a very doting father. Both made certain, however, that JJ was not as spoiled as either Quinn or Jeffy had been – although they both suspected their son was actually about as indulged as they (especially Jack) had been.
After the first few years of Daria's spending the summers at home with JJ while Jack was on research trips, JJ spent many of the following summers with his Uncle Jeff and Aunt Stacy plus one with 'Aunt Jane.' Jeff and Stacy had married immediately after college. Jeff had managed to have a five-year NFL career (if never as a starter), and he and Stacy had four children. Both loved to have JJ with them over summers, and JJ and his cousins got along very well. The previous and this past summer, however, JJ had gone to science camps – he was interested in physics and space rather than paleontology, but his parents were happy with his current choices.
Helen looked up as an older Toyota sedan pulled up to the curb and Jane got out. Jane and Daria had stayed very close over the years. While Jane still created her own individualistic paintings, she made most of her livelihood from portrait paintings of the rich and famous around the DC and Baltimore areas. She, her husband (an accountant of all things by profession, but a well-regarded amateur sculptor as well), and three sons shared the old Lane house with the still-unmarried Trent, who managed to scratch a living playing bars and the occasional jingle-work Quinn sent his way. Jane kept a close eye on the Morgendorffers – her own parents were gone, she and Trent were estranged from their other siblings, and Helen and Jake had looked after her more than her own parents had during her mid-to-late teen years.
"I'm here first?" Jane asked, a bit surprised as she stepped onto the porch.
Helen nodded her head. "Quinn is supervising the recording of that jingle Trent wrote for that new client – a bakery. She's picking up the cake from the client at the studio and should here by Twelve-thirty."
"And where are the rock hounds?"
Helen nodded towards the street. "That's them now."
Jack pulled up to the curb behind Jane's car in his latest truck. Daria came out first and stretched, but JJ was out of the tiny backseat as soon as his mother gave him room to escape. Except for slightly wider hips due to having given birth, Daria was still almost as slim as ever, weighing less than twelve pounds more than when she had graduated high school – of course, she had also stopped growing taller by then as well. Unlike Quinn, who had been 'touching up' her hair color for a few years, Daria still sported a natural mane of brownish auburn hair, currently cut much as it had been in high school. As it usually was when she had been on a summer expedition (this year the pair had been in Germany), Daria's hair was streaked with red highlights. Jack, still as muscular as ever, was greying and had a slight paunch these days, but it looked good on him, making him look like the distinguished scientific authority he was. Helen and Jane noticed that, as he sometimes did, Jack had grown a beard over the summer digging season, but that Daria had already made him shave it off, leaving a slightly less-tanned outline around his jaw.
JJ ran over to the porch. Unlike how his parents (especially his mother) had acted at his age, he usually dashed everywhere when possible. "Hi, Grandma! Hi, Aunt Jane!" His hair and hair color were both the same as his mother's. but otherwise JJ more closely resembled Jack. He carefully embraced his slightly fragile grandmother, but gave Jane a much stronger one.
"Dang, you're getting tall, kid!" Jane teased. She looked at her best friend, approaching hand-in-hand with her beloved. "You're feeding him too much!"
"That's okay, so long as he grows up and not out," Daria replied. Jack gently squeezed her hand.
Only Jane knew that the two had had some problems adjusting to marriage in the first months living together. However, both had been determined to make their marriage work. Neither, especially Daria, were compromisers by nature. However, both made compromises (some were as simple as the fact that the Frasiers had always had a maid service, and Jack had never done housework – Daria was not about to do it all. What most of the other compromises were – especially what had apparently been larger ones – Daria had never explained). Still, when one of them made one of those hard compromises, the other made certain to show how much it was appreciated. It helped that they were both always fully committed to each other and were still madly in love, and lust, even as they were approaching their 30th wedding anniversary in less than three years.
Neither Jack nor especially Daria liked to admit that in this final respect, both were much like both sets of their parents.
Jane knew that she would have had a difficult time committing to her own marriage, with the attendant needed compromises, without Daria and Jack's example to draw from. As much as Jane had supported Daria throughout her marriage, Jane knew that Daria had done even more for her.
"Hey, Kiddos!" Jake said happily from the doorway, using the frame and a cane to fully support himself. When Jake had entered his late fifties, after realizing he had outlived his father, and had done a much better job helping to raise his children, he had started to mellow out again. While he knew he was physically going downhill, he was content with his life – whatever Quinn's problems with personal commitment, she was otherwise successful and happy. Daria was living a life she truly enjoyed with a man she had loved and adored for decades and had a great son. Jake felt he had done well for his family, and both of his daughters would have agreed.
"Hey, Grandpa!" JJ carefully hugged his grandfather.
Helen smiled. Despite all her worries; despite all the errors she could now (somewhat) admit to, things had mostly worked out, especially for herself and for her elder daughter.
Other than some new aches and pains, she had little to complain about. So, like her husband, like her elder daughter, Helen thought life had, on the whole, been good.
The End. Thank you for reading!
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