Back before I was born, my mom was something of a trailblazer in her rural community by keeping her maiden name after she married my dad.
It may not sound like a big deal now, but it worked our relatives and neighbors into enough of a frenzy that some managed to forget they attended my parents' wedding and asked my grandma if they were "living in sin."
Over the next 30 years, we would see a lot more couples decide that how a marriage is traditionally "supposed" to work didn't make sense to them and do things their way. And really, it's a little jarring to consider how long it took for that cultural shift to happen since every marriage is different and the way a couple goes about it only matters insofar as the couple is happy with it.
But at the same time, one story serves as a good reminder that this also applies when a couple does want to do things the old-fashioned way.
