On Eve's Wedding Eve

The photo, taken Friday night by my wife, Ginny, shows my sister-in-law, May, taking a photo of my middle daughter Eve and Mark, her groom for tomorrow.

Yes, my diary entry for Friday reads like one of those interminable genealogies in the Old Testament. But you can’t tell the players without a scorecard so here goes:

On the eve of Eve and Mark’s wedding the far-flung family gathered for a pre-wedding get-together party. We’d all agreed beforehand to tell embarrassing stories about Eve but she arrived late to the party and we never got around to seeing the blushing bride really blush.

We’ll humiliate her at some later date to be announced.

What else is a loving family for?

My middle son Johnny missed his flight from Washington, D.C., and came in later; Fred, my oldest son, stayed in Maryland. Johnny, who competes in ballroom dancing contests, will dance with his sister, Eve, at her wedding Saturday.

Ginny’s brother, Eric, and his wife, Dot, flew in from California. They spent the day Friday swimming with sharks and dolphins at Marineland before coming to the party. Eric is an attorney with degrees in engineering and marketing; Dot works as an executive for a skin care company — That’s skin care not skin flicks.

My little brother, David, and his wife, May, and her sister Carol, drove up from south Florida for the wedding.

David actually brought a shotgun.

It’s not needed (Mark appears happy to go through with the wedding) but, being a protective uncle, David brought his shotgun just in case.

Actually David and May brought the shotgun because of a recent break in at their house and he wanted to remove it from the place while they were away from home for the wedding.

May worked at the hospital all night Thursday but she’s a party animal and wouldn’t miss Eve’s wedding. Her sister, Carol, recently moved here from Arizona. It snowed a foot there the day she left and today’s temperature here was 77 degrees, perfect weather for swimming in a shark tank.

Our daughter Patricia and her boyfriend Chris drove up from Gainesville. She’s excited about her new job in a lab there. And Chris, besides being a computer person, is active in dog rescue. In fact a mutual love for dogs brought them together. They slipped away from t he party for a while to check on a dog they’d recently placed.

Our son Donald and his wife Helen shot pool using billiard balls with embedded led lights inside so they light up flashing when they roll. Donald is a computer network administrator who is saving the Everglades. Helen is a graphic artist and yesterday a poster she designed for me was featured on Amrita’s Yesu Garden Blog in India.. Donald and Helen volunteered to drive out-of-towners all over creation for wedding related activities.

Our daughter Jennifer hosted this party but she had to drive to the airport late to pick up Johnny (see above). Her idea of wedding preparation was to have her dog groomed today. Can’t have a wedding with an un-groomed dog.

Mark’s mother, Nancy, and his brother Mike flew down from Michigan (where not many people were swimming with sharks or without today) to celebrate with Mark. If you watched the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv, you saw Nancy on one of her show horses from Harmony Farms.

For fun, Mike enjoys fencing. Modestly, he describes his skill level as only a third of the way between beginner and Olympic; he’s obviously much closer to Olympic than beginner.

Also attending the party were Eve and Mark (That’s them in the photo at the head of this post). Our daughter, Eve, is a Head Librarian and the groom, Mark, is an attorney aspiring to become a judge someday. They met via an internet dating service and tomorrow they marry.

Be careful where you click.

The captain of a docked cruise ship will marry Mark and Eve Saturday. After the reception all of us guests go ashore to watch the happy couple sail away into the sunset for their honeymoon amid sunny Caribbean isles.

My wife, her name is Ginny, walked around the party showing off a silver service pin she’s been awarded at work this morning — and a gold one too. That’s two distinguished service awards in one day. The place would fall apart without her!

Speaking of falling apart — I attended the party too.

Ginny and I begat some of the people listed above.

I told you this entry would read like an Old Testament genealogy.