guest blog by the pater familia

note: tomorrow is my parents' 41st wedding anniversary. my father emailed the following story to me asking if i thought it would be appropriate to post here. it most certainly is.
i hope you enjoy it. please feel free to leave him props as he reads the site.

Forty one years ago today I arrived in St. Louis Missouri in my little Chevrolet Carvet. The day was cold and overcast and there was a week old snow on the ground which had turned black from the slush and pollution. My little car was cold, as it always was, because it had a heater which ran on gasoline and the tank only held 10 gallons, so you conserved gas if you had a head wind by not running the heater or you might not make it to the next station. It was one of those days that most people just want to get over with, hoping that the next might bring pretty weather. That was not my mood though, because I had driven from Texas to meet the one that I felt I could no longer live without and was ecstatic. She had taken the bus from Pittsburgh and I was meeting her half way. We did this for two reasons, 1 -neither had enough money to either drive all the way or take the bus all the way, 2- this way we would see each other sooner.

I put her single tiny bag in the back of the car and we got in and took a long time to say hello and get reacquainted after being apart for almost a year. Then I asked her to look in the glove compartment and get a little paper bag out. In it was a ring and from the smile on her face I had my answer before I could ask the question. We were both in bliss.... The straight-through drive to Dallas was long and I had been driving for many hours but we got there about dark and went to my brother's home.

The next morning, (Feb 7), was a beautiful sun-shiny day in Dallas. We got up after the others had gone to work and went down town to get a blood test and marriage license. After this we stopped at a little tea room near SMU. As we sat there I told her something about my brother that she needed to know. He was not the type to let any event like a wedding come off without a big show. We were in for more that we wanted. We had decided to get married at the First Unitarian Church in North Dallas. After a little discussion I said "Let's do it now" She said "I'm game". I think we were both afraid that the fish would get off the hook. So we headed for the church. The minister, who I knew, said there was no problem except when she said that she had been raised in the Orthodox Church he thought that it might be a good idea to have an Orthodox Priest there too. After several calls it was obvious that they were rare in Dallas. It took a lot of talking to convince him that this was not needed.

There in a very large church with only the minister, his secretary (as witness) and the two of us we were married. You know that those large marriages are very nice but for us we would not have noticed if the church had been full of people, we only saw each other.

I must say that my Brother, for years, would not let me forget how we had spoiled his fun and now that he is gone, his wife still reminds us of it each year on our anniversary. The rest of my family too felt that they should have been allowed to take part, but immediately accepted her as a sister and daughter.

I guess what I am trying to tell here is that while weddings come in many different ways, it is not how big it is, how many people attend, or how unusual the setting, the success is how much love is involved. Our love and our marriage has now lasted for forty one years and two grown kids, and is still as strong and growing as it was on that beautiful day in Dallas.