The Wedding

My son was married last weekend in Madison. He and his bride have been together five years (that long already?) They have a little house, two jobs, two cars, two dogs, and many dreams for a long and loving life.

What was the wedding like, you ask? Well, I’m not going to put THEIR wedding on MY website.  Instead, let me tell you some things about their day from my point of view as one of the four parents who love these kids dearly.

And by kids, I mean adults in their early 30’s (that old already?)

As our organizing principle, let’s go with “Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue” – since this was, after all, a wedding.

Something Old

The engagement ring he gave her is made from the engagement rings of my two grandmothers and my mom; three good marriages tied together in the ring on her hand now. Joe, Vic, and Wilman were loving and respectful men who grateful to be married to Esther, Laura, and Dorothy. As well they ought to have been. Those were good women! No affairs, no cheating, no lies.  Lots of struggles, working together, and laughter. My son and his bride are lucky to both come from modest families surprisingly rich in long and happy marriages.

Something new

His tan suit, her dreamy dress, my handsome daughters, their many friends. I knew several of my son’s friends; I remember when they’d hang out at our house working on the 1962 blue truck a Chicago friend had given to us, for our car-bedazzled kid (she was so happy to get it pulled out of her garage). 

I’ll never forget the day I heard sudden loud yelling that terrified me. I ran to the garage to see who had been crushed. What had happened -- was that engine turned over!  The boys were pumping their fists and carrying each other around like athletes do when they win the world series.

And there they were at the wedding. New adults now - with educations, careers, families, houses, and nice cars that run well. They looked good; they are a new generation. I was grateful to be the old mom that remembered the screwball kids they once were.

Something borrowed:

Our daughter married in Chicago four years ago. Her beautiful wedding was at sunset on Lake Michigan and she had ordered as decorations a couple dozen white paper globe lanterns.  We hung them inside the rented tent at her wedding and they were beyond beautiful.

After her wedding the woman who is now my son’s wife, took the box of collapsed globe lanterns to her sister who was marrying a few weeks later.

And then they passed them on to another marrying friend.

And then they were at my son’s wedding!

They are on their way to another wedding as we speak...  

Something blue

He moved out of our house when he was one month shy of 18 to go to art school in downtown Chicago. Then he lived in that city for a year with our daughter; I think he had four or five jobs, several of them at the same time. He moved on to Madison, finished his degree, found more jobs until he found the one he now has that he likes; helping North American bike shops set up or untangle their computer inventory systems. 

Five years ago he went to an Obama rally with one friend who introduced him to another friend. She is the girl he married. The mutual friend officiated the wedding. 

But in all those years since he was 17 and 11/12’s – he never came back home to live.

I’m very happy. I’m a little blue.

But not too blue - because they are on their honeymoon this week and we are watching their two young pups and have woken up – very early - to dog kisses every morning so far.

 Love is love is love.