A Beautiful Relationship

A Simple Marriage

I never saw that simple white dress. I asked my mother about it, what it looked like and where she got it. She told me it was a simple white dress that she borrowed from a friend. It was sleeveless, knee length with a gored skirt and a jacket. There was no veil just a white hat and a white rose corsage. It must have cost a lot for that corsage, it was Christmas Day and not the right time of year for finding roses at the florist in those days.

After the ceremony at the pastor's house she gave the dress back to her friend, so there was no dress folded up or hung away, stored to look at and admire. There were only a few fuzzy snapshots of my parents on the front steps of the pastor's house, standing in the snow. They looked so young and happy. I was sure they were because I was sure they loved each other.

I asked my father about that wedding dress and he couldn't remember a thing about it. What he did remember was my mother's beauty. He told me she looked like an angel in that white dress. Her waist-length, light golden brown hair braided and wound around her head like a halo. He said she cut her hair short soon after they married. Even after all those many years, when they were both middle aged, I think he still felt sad about never seeing that golden halo of hair again.

Our home was a refuge, I never saw my parents disrespect each other, even when they disagreed. When there were hard times, as there almost always will be, they leaned on each other and they never let me feel insecure. I knew they would always take care of me and their love would see them through anything, even the loss of employment, serious illness and death of two children. They taught me what love between a man and woman should be and what a true home really is.

Even when they grew old my father still talked about that simple wedding and the day he married an angel with a golden brown halo.

It was a simple wedding and a simple marriage filled with the light of love and the fruits of peace. It was a home where a little girl felt secure.

For these things I am eternally grateful to God and my parents.