In which Little Huney gets hitched…

My sister (looking very beautiful as the MOB)

began calling her baby girl “Little Huney” rather early on because she really was a “Little Huney” – and very different in personality from her big sister....

but not perfect, of course--they have had some interesting times with her, just like most other parents who have raised daughters. She got up one morning before anybody else was awake, decided she wanted a piercing in her ear cartilage, and just.... did it herself. Then she came home one day with a stud in the side of her nose, again without asking anyone what they thought about it.

And then she met a young man at Starbucks, and fell in love...

 and they had a glorious wedding back on June 18 (time flies!).



I have sat through a few weddings that seemed to me like train wrecks waiting to happen, and unfortunately, my assessment was sometimes right. Of course one never knows how things are going to work out for a young couple as they begin life together, and most couples do go through bad patches no matter how perfect they are for each other.

This wedding was not a train wreck. Indeed not.

We were right up front, in the second row, so I don’t know how many elbows bent to press Kleenex to extra moist eyes, but I suspect there was a lot of damp Kleenex by the time the ceremony was done, especially when the groom got choked up saying his vows and could hardly finish them, and the minister who married them got choked up himself.

Having come unprepared, I had to borrow my brother’s handkerchief before the ceremony even started.

So, how does one go about putting into words the sights, sounds, and memories of a lovely wedding and lovely visit with family and friends?

Ships passing in the night

I have not seen my Aunt Vera (my father's sister) and her husband, Uncle Bud

or their children—cousins Teri, Mark, and Nadine—since their father turned 80 years old in June 2003.
 
Our family happened to be on a “long weekend” trip to Yosemite that year, which is not that far from Sacramento, where they live, and so we took a detour home and crashed the party.

Uncle Bud Murphy and Little Huney share a birthday. She decided to get married three days before her birthday, and the Murphy relatives decided to come to the wedding, and then head on down the road to Phoenix, where Mark lives, to have big party  for Uncle Bud.

Teri came from Hawaii so she could drive her dad and mom in their RV...


and Nadine (on the left there) came too so they could take turns with the driving. And then surprise surprise, Mark showed up for the wedding...



He is a pilot, so he hopped on a plane Saturday morning in Phoenix, rode in the “jump seat” to the Orange County airport, rented a car, attended the wedding, drove back to the airport, and caught another ride back to Phoenix.

And then there was cousin Jeanie and her husband Ryojin..
.

She is a “half first cousin” -- we had the same Grandpa (a longish story better saved for another time)  -- who lives in Pennsylvania. I last saw her in 2004 when my father turned 80 and she came to the party.

The wedding coincided with a trip she was planning to Papua New Guinea and she had to be in Los Angeles in connection with that, so I was able to spend a little time visiting with her before we went our separate ways -- her husband back to Pennsylvania and for her, a long plane ride over thousands of miles of ocean.

We were like ships passing on the sea, flashing smiles at each other, exchanging brief messages, and then heading off on our own particular journeys.