And Then There Were None

That’s actually the title of an Agatha Christie novel where several guests invited to a dinner party get knocked off one by one. (I never read the book…remember seeing the movie on the black & white when a kid. I just remember it being creepy and I think I saw Agatha Christie’s name in the credits. Thought it was a funny name.) That has nothing to do with this…

Now that all that needed to simmer down is done I’ve reflected a little on what’s happened over the past several weeks. So, I’ve brewed a huge cup of hot chocolate and curled up around the computer, (a little pokey and cold) to tap out a few thoughts on the keyboard.

I was asked many times how I felt about Heather, she being the last to leave the nest so to speak. Well, she actually left this tight little nest of ours years ago. I think in that aspect this marriage was different than the others.

You have to permit some father sap to leach from the grizzled bark of this old stump of a tree at this point when I say that there was no feeling of selfishness, sadness, remorse, or any negative feeling concerning the last of these tender shoots to spring free and blossom.

Both Jan and I were filled with joy for Heather as we watched her kneeling at the altar and being sealed to her husband. (Sometimes we think of the term “being sealed” as being sealed in a container or being restrained. The term sealed used in this case means being approved by God, it has received His stamp of approval. This marriage has been graded A-1 and as long as covenants are kept here, God’s covenants will be kept there.)

The day was filled with “life touch” moments.

Little “say it like it is” Hayley telling Heather at the unofficial wedding day pancake breakfast (sorry you missed this, Jason) that she “looked beautiful …different.” Yep, Heather exuded atomic bride wedding day radiation.

Grumpy old men at the temple telling young brides and their mothers to leave wedding stuff in the lobby and not take them to the brides room...(note to temple presidencies: don’t put grumpy old men at the recommend desk to battle mothers of the bride. G.O.M will lose…badly)

Having Kevin, Jordan, Heather, and knowing Brittany would be there if she could in the temple that day with their wonderful spouses. With Jan, that’s all I need.

Trying to line the three grandchildren up for a photo in front of the fountain. The best pictures are the ones taken when they are frozen in time, trying to scatter.

I love it when the long anticipated moment when the newly made bride and groom emerge from the temple doors. What are they supposed to do?

Thank you Heather for being indulgent in letting some football junkies incorporate a game into the festivities. A unique luncheon.

We were again stressed to get to the reception on time. And again, despite my telling Jan this wasn’t going to happen again, Jan and daughter were no where to be found and women were asking me questions about what needed to be done in the kitchen or with the food.

Jason’s family was AOL at the beginning of the reception. We were afraid they had gone back to California already. But, they had just been given some wrong directions and as usual at any reception and in any marriage, you “gotta roll with what you got.”

My favorite memory of the entire evening however was toward the end as Heather and Jason were gathering their things together to leave. Throughout the evening Hayley, Tia and two other same sized little girls dressed in identical party dresses had flitted and floated around the reception like little birds. Heather had suffered, as most brides do, Cinderella syndrome and had taken her shoes off as she stood in the reception line. Her glittered spiked heeled slippers sat by the back white wall of the castle that had served as the backdrop where those from the surrounding kingdom had come to meet and wish Jason and Heather good will in their marriage. I’m not sure if Heather had asked Hayley and Tia to retrieve her shoes or not, but when these little princesses realized they had a mission, the four girls flew across the room, fluttering around table and chairs, returning with shoes in hand.

Then like the magical mice in true fairy tale tradition these four little girls scurried around Heather’s wedding dress, lifting her skirt, placing her shoes on her feet, nearly getting lost beneath the ruffles, and then pranced, danced, and giggled in a circle around their new queen.

The newly married couple then waved farewell to their loved ones as they drove away in their coach with silver ribbons streaming in the cool misty air.

And they lived happily ever after…