A sigh of relief and gratitude

We had 45 for the Celebration Picnic this afternoon...wow. Cindi, Tammi and Cheri really did a great job of planning and pulling off the event for the honored couple. They had Chickie's wedding dress on a manican along side one holding up one of Bruce's early Army uniforms...their attire for the wedding. In fact, we took pictures and had a laugh last night as those of us who attended the original event gathered around for the mock celebration. The best man, the maid of honor, the soloist and a junior usher were there to attest to the fact for the younger generation that those two actually, formally wed back in 1955.

The weather was perfect. For an early September day in Southern Virginia....it reminded me of July in Michigan.

We spent 35 minutes on formal pictures this morning...all combinations of relatives from both sides of the family...with and without spouces...whew. I told someone that the scarry thing is you realize you are getting old when you remember the bethrothed when they were teen agers. They were not always "old." Shirley called in the midst of the evening celebration and talked to Chick.

The picnic came off at 1:30...Chicken, burgers, salads, veggies on the grill...all the trimmings. What a beautiful feast. As we gathered for the blessing Cindi asked me to read the poem that Brother Dave wrote for the rehersal dinner. I remember very well what the point was and some of the lines sounded like I had heard them just yesterday. The lymeric got a better response today than I remember the original getting. I could be wrong, of course, but I think people were pretty stuffy and tight fifty years ago. But what rang true was the devotion that these two indicated then, which Dave wrote about, and we had fifty years of history to substantiate it. Yep, they did make it in fine style. Just as the poem was concluding, Dave called Jill's phone for Chick...what timing.

We talked, played, sang karioke (Rob has all the technology) and just generally enjoyed the day. People began going home (those close enough) at about 4:00. The rest of us will peel off tomorrow morning after breakfast.

The Williams women gotta know that their maternal grand mother would have be mighty proud of them for pulling off such a family oriented celelbration weekend...including a hymn sing. It would have suit Meemie to a tee.