OUR WEDDING (PART 3)

The miracle of a wedding can be the way it brings together and unites people around this new union.. and ours was no exception. Our old friends and new friends and our children and siblings and even a parent, John's 89-year-old father, were all there to witness and join in the celebration. We had gone through the things of meeting each others' significant people, by traveling here or there, or inviting people to our place, but this was the first time that so many of our precious ones were in the same place at the same time. Here is my son,
Deron, talking with John's father, Charles, with Todd, Brian and Kim standing inside the door. And that is Kim and Todd's oldest daughter, Natalie in her flower girl dress.

Here are Sarah Rosensweet and Nick Saccomano...John's best man and my matron of honor. They had never met before the wedding. Yet it was just one of the sweetnesses of this gathering for us to see them talking and getting to know one another a little. All of these meetings seemed like a beautiful tapestry being woven that would give us a stronger sense of coming together as one family.

Sarah is one of five friends, including me, who have known each other for 20-some years and who have gotten together several times a year and spent a weekend together. Since my father died in 1999, I thought of my girlfriends when it came to the question of who was going to "give me away" . So the four of them walked me down the aisle and said a loud "WE DO!" when the preacher asked "Who gives this woman...?"

In the back of the group is Susan Braccio, then Dolores Korotie, then me, then Sarah and then Dale Genovese (bending over to address the concern of one of the flower girls). I will always be grateful for their coming down to Franklin for the occasion. It made it seem really complete that each of them was with us.

We just had our first anniversary and all of them except Dale have been back. Both she and her husband Bill, are dear friends of ours and I hope they get down here soon!