Can We Talk 2

Another Wedding

         This was not your typical wedding I attended today. The bride was 79 and the groom was 80.They have been friends since they got out of college. The two women were best friends in nursing school, so when they were married, their circle of close friends expanded. Then their children became their friends. Thirteen years ago when my friend's husband died, her best friend and spouse were there to comfort her. When the second woman died more recently, my friend was there to extend her sympathies. They had a lifetime of memories to share.

         Unplanned, and unintended by either of them, their friendship deepened. They began to depend on each other emotionally. Once they recognized this, it ran away with them. He sold his house because it was decorated by his late wife and filled with her memories. He got new furniture and moved into an apartment. Jan had 13 years of dining alone and adjusting her living space to make it exclusively her own. They found they wanted to devote themselves to each other for the time they have left.

         So the bride wore pants with a pretty top. The choir gave her a silver necklace which she wore for the ceremony. Family had come in from several states. Church members, local Elks members and other friends arrived for a brief religious ceremony. Our female pastor presided in a lovely celebration of their previous lives and the new one they are beginning together. We all cried tears of happiness. They are not married in the eyes of the state, but in the eyes of God and the community they are in a committed relationship. (How did the government get involved in family and religious matters anyway?)

         It kind of made me want to find somebody, but then weddings do give people hope, don't they?