Easter, Shawna Wedding

It’s Easter Sunday and I’m up in Vermont at my folks place. Friday we flew in to Burlington on a direct flight. Very nice, smooth and uneventful. We landed about 5:00 and grabbed our rental car – a Saturn Vue. Kinda big but OK with lots of room. We had dinner at Libby’s diner with Fred and Patricia and then had a short visit before we headed further north.

We got to my parents and found the place deserted. About 10 minutes later they show up with my brother Mike and his wife Susan. I didn’t realize they were going to be there too. It was nice. We don’t get to see them too often so it was a treat.

Saturday was Shawna’s wedding. (brother Jerry’s youngest). It was a nice affair held at a wedding and reception place in the far reaches of NY state – a stones throw from Canada. Altona, NY.  It may not be the end of the world – but you can sure see it from there.

Shawna and Tucker have been together for 5 years and have a 3 ½ year old son, Hayden. She’s a bit manipulative but seems to be maturing now. Tucker I don’t know well but I hear they’re great parents.

Jerry’s ex wife, Debbie (Shawna’s mother) died in 2000 of lymphoma. They were divorced about 7 years by then but they remained close and finished raising the girls. They were so close that Jerry made all of her funeral arrangements. It was really touching for us when the minister asked “Who give away this woman” Jerry replied “Her mother and I do”. I was not expecting that. Debbie’s mom, 2 sisters and 1 of her brothers were sitting right next to us. I had not seen them in 20 years. I still recognized them and we got to talk a fair bit.

Jerry asked me to take some video of “his party”. He gave me his camera and I recorded almost 1 hour of the activities. I was glad to do it for him. I couldn’t help thinking about how many marriages end up splitting up. As I have attended so many over the years they have less meaning to me. I heard the term “starter marriage” a while back and I think that’s a great description.  I hope that’s not the case with them.

Anyway, we had a great time although I didn’t stick around to dance and didn’t mingle as much as I usually do.

Today we had a small dinner (9 of us) and topped it off with homemade blackberry pie. Ummmm. My sister Dorothy and Roy came over along with their daughter, Kathy who brought her boyfriend (a bit of a bum who is 30 and has never held a job). Brother Mike had to fly to Taiwan so he missed dinner. I ate too much.

Earlier this morning I took a long walk on our property with my sister and bol. We got about 3 inches of snow and the woods was great for walking. Then we ate some fried bread dough with homemade maple syrup and went out for another walk in the snow. I really needed to move.

Tonight we’ll go over to Dorothy’s for a movie and dinner. Nice to be with family.

Namaste