My Grandparents Are Renewing Their Vows

40 years ago, after my grandmother had given birth to six children and detached herself from the groom, she married the man I know as my grandfather. The first groom is never discussed, almost as if he never existed, but the replacement is awesome. So, when most couples would be celebrating 50 years of marriage, these two are only at the 40 mark.

I’ve been trying to write a poem for the occasion, but had come up short for the last year.  I only have a month left until  wedding!  This is what I have come up with so far…….

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Once there was a woman

Looking for a man.

 

From her body

She had designed a world unfinished.

And much in need of building,

she laid it down for him to share:

 

Offering him life and generations

Like Eve and Sarah gave to Man

 

With pride and honor

And with capable, grateful hands,

This man took up a life now joined by God.

He entered in to this woman’s quest

 

He kept it all tight to his chest

Making it safe and protecting it.

 

The two of them, still completing it:

A plan without an end;

As each other’s companion piece,

Together they will tend it.

 

And so it passed, that together matched,

The mother and the carpenter.

 

It’s not Yeats, but I think they’ll like it. My grandpa can build anything from a block a wood or a semi load of 2×4’s and my grandmother will parent us all as the grand matriarch until her final breath. (probably after that) Not to mention, she came to this man with 6 children and an unmatched level of propriety.

 

Raise a glass for Louie and Joyce!