OH HAPPY DAY

Today at noon I gained a daughter-in-law. It seemed that the day would never come. My son called me around 12:30 p.m. and told me that he and Cheryl had been to city hall on their lunch hour and got married and were having lunch and then going back to work. What a hoot. I don't have one child with a conventional bone in its body.

I was about ready to leave for lunch myself with the Friday Girls so I got to break the news to them and then after lunch we went to Party City and bought a big bunch of balloons. After a little prayer we released them and watched them soar into the clouds, the balloons having formed a circle in the sky. My friend Denise had a camera on her cell phone so she recorded the events for me. We were about to go to our cars when one of the girls asked if we were going to have wedding cake and I said, "Why not." I instructed them to go on to my house and I went past the store and picked up the most suitable cake the bakery had--a layer cake with yellow roses--and had "Congratulations John and Cheryl" written on it. The girls called my mom and she came over with a pot of fresh coffee. We made quite a ceremony of cutting the cake with John on the phone line while I described what was going on and then we sat around and had cake, pineapple sherbert and coffee. What a glorious afternoon. I doubt that I could have enjoyed it more had I been at the wedding myself.

I can hardly get my head out of the clouds all of these hours later. It has truly been a happy day and my friends seemed so happy to share it with me. Sometimes life seems near perfect. I hope that the bride and groom have had a perfect day too.