Taking Your Husband's Name

My new friend Carol Cassara has a great prose poem post on her blog Middle-Aged Diva, musing about the choice of whether to change your last name to his when you get married. She's let me share it with you. Here's an appetizer; then read the rest at her blog.

These arrived the other day.
Yes, the college I'm teaching at needs to have them on file
to be sure I have the appropriate credentials
to be teaching young minds. 

Not that these tell you much

except that I met a university's degree criteria.

But, whose name is on them?

Mine. 

That is M's surname, which I took in 1972 when we married the first time. 

And that's who I was as I finished my college career.

And then, one day, after he left, I was writing a check in Publix on Appalachee Parkway in Tallahassee, Fla. {Yes, there was a day when grocery stores did not take credit cards and debit cards had not yet been invented.}  I remember the moment vividly. I stopped, mid-signature and thought to myself, Why do I have this name? 

CONT'D at : Middle-Aged Diva