October 3, 2013 (Thursday)
I’ve been a widower for nearly twelve years, but my wedding anniversary date (today) is still an important day for me. The marriage took place 60 years ago.
Wanda and I were not married in a church. This was Wanda’s choice, to keep it all quiet and simple. We were married on a Saturday evening in 1953 at the home of a pastor friend (J. Howard Smith) in Dallas. Wanda’s sister, Ann, was her maid of honor. Dwight Dudley was my Best Man. A few family members and friends were present for the ceremony, which was delayed several hours because the Best Man had difficulty finding the house.
After the ceremony, we had dinner in a downtown restaurant with my mother and stepfather, then we set out in my old excuse for a car, driving north on Highway 75. We soon ran into a blinding rainstorm and stopped for the night in McKinney, Texas, where we attended worship services the following morning. The couple sitting in the pew ahead of us said we should sing in the choir. Dr. Charles Myers was the pastor (he passed away recently at age 95).
We then drove to Turner Falls in Oklahoma, where we spent a couple of days on our Honeymoon. We hurried back to Cleburne, where Wanda was a teacher, to an upstairs apartment in the private residence of a widow. Wanda was back in her classroom and I attended class (Seminary) the first morning and went to my job at Vandervoort Ice Cream factory that afternoon. When I got home from work, Wanda had supper all prepared, the first of thousands of wonderful meals she would cook over the next 48 years.
From a simple beginning, we had a fairly simple life, blessed with five wonderful children, nine magnificent grand children, and many opportunities of Christian service. Grand daughter Jennifer and her husband, Stephen, in Hawaii have promised me a great grandchild next May. Life is good.