We make it official! Our wedding day, May 24, 1973. The rest of the story. . . we were living together (gasp!) for a few months, but family pressure hastened us into making it legal. Since neither of us were religious, and both of us were broke, we had a simple ceremony in a judge’s chambers with close family and a few friends. People looking at our wedding photos now are puzzled, as in “where’s the bride and groom?” Frankly, donning a virginal white gown that costs a zillion dollars never appealed to me, though I did get Bill to wear a tie.
At the time, he was completing a Master’s degree in biochemistry, and I was supporting both of us on a secretary’s wages. I was nineteen years old. (And I wasn’t pregnant – that’s the other assumption people always make!) We moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, where I didn’t know a soul, and within four years we had two children (by then he was working long hours in a pulp mill). I had nil experience with babies or children, and we had very little money and no family support, but somehow we managed.
I’m sometimes asked about it, but there isn’t a “secret” to all this, except to say that respect and acceptance may be, over the long haul, even more important than love. This isn’t a popular thing to say, and I get the same puzzled looks from people when I say it. I will add that “in sickness and in health” is VERY important, and in the past couple of years we have had to take care of each other through a lot of very serious stuff.
The other night we were having dinner at our favourite restaurant, and at one point I asked him, “Any regrets?” He said no, and I said “Me neither”. What could be more romantic than that?
