I was watching television one day years ago….it had to be in the 1980’s, maybe 1984 or 1985. Anyway, I don’t remember who I was watching, but it was probably either Michel Drucker or Patrick Sabatier, then again it could have been Bernard Pivot.
In any case, one of them had a famous actress on their show who was now getting on in years, but she was still beautiful all the same. I don’t remember who she was; she could have been French, or Italian, or from some other European country. (Bear with me, you’re probably starting to think,…. And….so….? Spit it out!) LOL!
Okay, whoever it was asked her why she had never gotten married. He said, (and I’m paraphrasing here, obviously!) “Surely a beautiful woman as yourself, you probably had many proposals in your lifetime, but you never got married. Why?”
Now even though I’ve forgotten just about everything else pertaining to this incident, I have never forgotten her answer! She said:
“Je ne savais pas que la dernière fois que j’ai été demandée en mariage, c’était la dernière fois que j’ai été demandée en mariage.”
Source Unknown
(I didn’t know that the last time I was asked to get married, was the last time I was asked to get married.)
Maya Muses: The host tried to elaborate on it, but she said nothing more about it. From time to time throughout the years….not often, maybe once every two or three years….I’ll remember that quote!
Sometimes I wonder, would she have made a different choice if she could see into the future? Would she have said “yes” if she knew that that would be the last time anyone would ask for her hand in marriage? Or would she have left things just the way they were? I like to think the latter although her quote leaves somewhat of a lingering doubt.
Photo Credit: Flickr
4 responses so far ↓
1 Lynn // Jan 12, 2009 at 6:40 pm
A friend e-mailed me this story after reading my post that I thought was just too good not to copy and paste here! She wrote:
I just finished reading An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege….Belle was the librarian for J.P. Morgan and helped him select/buy books for his library. Belle had many “flirtations” during her life, but she never married.
p. 379
……One of the letters recounted a flirtation Belle had with a rich westerner in New York for a few weeks. The lumberman put “himself and his checkbook” in Belle’s hands, so she made the rounds of New York society and art dealers with him, instructing him to buy several paintings, a private train car, and numerous meals and entertainments. Perhaps a bit dazed, the man returned to the slower pace of life west of the Mississippi. But the experience apparently stayed with him, for a few weeks later he cabled her, “When will you marry me?” She replied that “all such proposals would be considered alphabetically after my 50th birthday……….”
2 Mia // Jan 12, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Hmm…
What to think of us then?
Having shared our life together as a couple for soon 32 years…
And Now we are thinking of getting married!
Are we crazy or?
Well,getting married now means something else for us now I think…
Still not sure how we will do it.. only that we want to do it “Our Way”…whatever that means…
By the way,why do you remember that quote once every two or three years?
3 Lynn // Jan 13, 2009 at 8:12 pm
You and Ulf living together for 32 years and now wanting to get married is a wonderful story! I know you’ll do it your way and wish both of you all the best!
4 Lynn // Jan 13, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Why do I remember that quote every few years? I don’t know. As I say in my “About Me” I never wanted to get married. I was asked five times from five wonderful men, but it just wasn’t something I wanted to do.
Looking back on my life, would I have done things differently….no! The choices I make, I try to make so that when I look back on things, I have no regrets.
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