Our Wedding Story

No story is as simple as it seems looking in. I wrote a brief timeline of the hubby and my life together. We dated, we got engaged, we got married. The clincher- all of this was before I turned 21. It's not something I comment too much in my daily life. I don't bring it up but when people find out we usually get a "Whoa!" or a funny look. It isn't odd for a 26 year old to be married. It is odd that it is going on 6 years. No, I wasn't pregnant at the time (obviously) and no it wasn't a rash decision. It is much, much more than that. Here it goes...

Addi and Stella,
Mommy and Daddy met the first week of Mommy's freshman year of college. Although he used really corny pick-up lines, I liked him anyway and a few months later we were dating. It didn't take long to know that it was something special and we started talking about forever. My family loved him and his family loved me. I went to Grammy and Grandpa Tim over Christmas break. It all just fit. We kept dating the rest of the school year, visited each other all summer and on vacation with my family in Cape May during 4th of July weekend we picked out a ring. My uncle gave Eric a loan and even though he planned to propose at a romantic park in PA (home for me then), he couldn't wait and popped the question the week school started. I'll save that story for another time.... it's cute and funny.

Anyway, I said yes and we started planning out wedding for a few years down the road. No rush. Daddy would be done school at the end of the year and was going to start teaching. I still had three more years of college plus another year of grad school to get through. Until October. October 8th to be exact. October 8th, Poppy called me at school and asked if I could make sure Daddy was there with me. I knew something was wrong. Poppy told me he had been painting his house when he realize he couldn't see out of one of his eyes very well. He went to the doctor and then a specialist. He said there was a tumor and I asked him if he had cancer. He said yes.

The whole world stopped. A few days after, there was a diagnosis and a treatment plan. Everything happened so quickly. Was I going to leave school for a while? What was going to happen? Things only got worse and more complicated a week later. Grandpa Tim came out of remission. He had brain and spinal cord cancer for over 10 years, multiple surgeries, chemo, radiation, etc. His tumor was back.

Daddy and I knew what we needed to do. We felt so helpless but knew that if we were going to have our whole families together for our wedding it had to be soon. Having our family there for our wedding became more important to us and the rest of the family too. It gave us something to work for and look forward to.
We set out date for 9 months away from when we found out and started planning. I was 19 and Daddy was 21.

Poppy had radiation treatment and Grandpa Tim did chemo. We waited for test results. Poppy's tumor hadn't spread anywhere else and that was good news. Grandpa Tim was still able to go about his normal routine even with treatment. We all made it to July. We made it to our wedding day. Poppy's eye was still recovering and got tired so I did my best to make him laugh in the back of the church so he wouldn't cry. It worked for a little while. Grandpa Tim prayed for our wedding. We laughed a lot when he was given the whole pants at the tux shop and could see his white socks. We became one family and we had even more to celebrate.

We ate and danced the rest of the night. I got my father-daughter dance like my Poppy always promised. I remember while we were dancing the night he called me tearfully and told me his tests were good and he would be walking me down the aisle. I saw Daddy hug his Dad and see how proud Grandpa Tim was of him. It was special and beautiful and everything we ever wanted.

Hugging our Dads...