On Friday, Mer and I headed down to our church for a wedding. It was the granddaughter/daughter of close family friends, a girl that I pushed around in a little car when she was five (back in my Ohio stay, part one). In a typical way for this family, the “small, family wedding” bloomed into a church wedding of about 130 people. That was okay, but it made me smile – things always get bigger with our friends.

The ceremony was good. Our pastor and friend, Ken, presided. Ken is great in that he is plain in his message, and always has practical advice. He admonished the couple that marriage is for life, and is from God. He told them to actively protect their marriage, and that their love for each other is the most important (Earthly) love they have now, and then Ken gave some advice. He told the husband to be willing to talk and listen to his wife when he came home from work, for at least 30 minutes (they are going to have a housewife/working husband household). He told them to be patient with each other, and to strive not to let the sun go down on their anger when they had some. I enjoyed the ceremony.

There was a reception in the church’s new expansion wing, but I did not get to experience much of that. During the ceremony, I had the start of one of my wonderful migraines, and it bloomed into full-throbbing mode during the reception. I spent most of the reception outside in the cool evening air –  it made my head feel somewhat better. I even tried getting a Blizzard-esque ice cream treat from New Baltimore Ice Cream, which was really good, but did not help my head much. I did have some fun distraction with talking with one of the 7-year-old granddaughters of our friends. She told me the story of her Barbie movie, Barbie and the Diamond Castle, which was told a mile a minute with huge gestures. It made me laugh.

I finally pleaded with Meredith to go just as the cake was being cut. That says how much my head hurt – I was willing to miss cake, and I even let Meredith drive with me as the passenger for the first time in years. I got home and promptly went to bed and slept for about 12 hours.

I understand Mer had a great time talking and visiting with Aunt Mary and with other close friends.