As an innocent young boy, I was sure that weddings were blissful affairs, heralded by a time period when all the family members get outfitted like royalty, and caterers and halls are booked, countless purchases are made with the generous swiping of one's credit card. As the youngest of a large, bustling family, I experienced the marvel of "wedding season" time and again. And I was sure it was par for course that when my turn came, the cloud of bliss would be the same.
Lo and behold, when the sister just above me was of age, my father hit upon hard times. Really hard times. He lost his job as a real-estate agent, which had provided for the family generously for so many years. Suddenly, there was barely an income, and there were expenses aplenty. I was a young man on the cusp of shidduchim myself, and the cloud of innocence that had enveloped me regarding finances was gone. I understood the reality well enough.
"Tatty," I tentatively broached the subject one day, "what will be? How will you marry off Gitty in this situation?"
"Does it really matter what our situation is?" my father responded. "Is anything impossible for Hashem?! Hashem can arrange a beautiful wedding for your sister." He looked up at me suddenly and then added, "and for you as well."
Tatty's emunah was so strong; it is the only explanation I can provide for what happened next.
When he was still working, my father once closed on a big deal, and one of his clients paid him with bonds and stocks in a certain company, which were equal in value at the time to the sum the client owed my father. A short while later, however, the value of the stock plummeted to the point that it was worth less than the paper it was written on. Tatty immediately called the client and asked for payment in cash, but the client claimed that since on the day he'd given over the stocks they were worth what he owed, he did not have to exchange them now for cash.
"Listen," he told my father, "the value of stocks can fall, and it can also rise again. Maybe one day this stock will cover the cost of your children's weddings..."
It sounded like a good joke, but since Tatty saw there was no chance of getting the money from him, he put the papers at the bottom of a drawer and basically forgot about them.
And suddenly, exactly at the time that an excellent shidduch was suggested for my sister Gitty, the value of those stocks rose again. Someone bought out the company and brought it back to life. The value of shares in the company soared. Tatty sold off some of his stocks and received a huge sum of money for it - enough to cover the entire cost of Gitty's wedding.
With the stocks he had left, Tatty married me off as well. We literally saw how a pipeline of shefa opened up in order to provide for the two weddings.
And then it closed.
A short while after my wedding, the value of those stocks plummeted again.