The Wedding Day That Taught My Sister — and Me — the True Meaning of Inclusion

Midway through the afternoon, my cousin called. Her voice was hushed and hurried.
“Everyone’s asking where you are,” she said. “No one can believe you’re not here.”

I didn’t say much, but inside, I felt a quiet wave of strength. My absence, it seemed, had not gone unnoticed.

As evening fell, the phone buzzed again — this time with a knock at my door. When I opened it, there she was: my sister, still in her wedding gown. Her makeup was streaked from tears.

“I shouldn’t have said those things,” she whispered. “Everyone kept asking why you weren’t there. I told them it was because of the photos, and then I realized how shallow that sounded. I wanted a beautiful wedding… but I forgot that beauty isn’t just in the flowers or the pictures. It’s in the people who love us.”

Her words trembled between us like fragile glass.

When Love Learns What It Really Means

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