Well, today is our 28th wedding anniversary. We were married on Mar. 1st, 1986, by a justice of the peace in his home. Ironically, his home was across the street from where I had attended junior high school. I thought that was serendipity.
We had been living together for about 8 months, I think, before that. I was 18, and Mike was just shy of 22. We had decided to marry by a JP, because his family really wasn't happy about our plans to marry, and so we weren't sure if we wanted to have a big wedding. In the end we had both, but that is for another post. Very few people know about this first marriage ceremony. Only the people that needed to know, which did not include our families at the time. It was a special secret that Mike & I shared, and I treasured the memory. There is no point in keeping it anymore.
I wore a white dress, with baby's breath in my hair, and Mike wore his military dress uniform. I still have the baby's breath pressed in a photo album. We had two friends as witnesses: Mike's closest friend at the time, John, and his wife Cynthia. After the ceremony, the two of us went out for dinner to The Smuggler's Inn, where we had prime rib and champagne. Our witnesses weren't able to join us for dinner, as John had to deploy on course the next day. So it was just the two of us. Sounds a little lonely, but it was sweet.
We spent the night in the honeymoon suite at the Delta BowValley hotel, Room 2517. I still have the receipt in the same photo album. It cost us $96, which would have been a fortune for us at that time.
This will be our last anniversary. I expect our divorce to be final before the next one comes around. Rather than celebrating the culmination of our marriage, I am reflecting on its end, and looking back on all we shared with a heavy heart. I'm learning to view it at a distance, though, and not drown in the pain.
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