Franklin had asked me to be his
best man. The wedding was to be in Hamilton Ontario. I had two reasons to want
to go. First, I wanted to celebrate the great relationship we had the previous
year wondering if this might be the end of it. Franklin and Donna had two years
of home service ahead of them that would be spent at Avenue Road Alliance in
Toronto. Then they were going to India as missionaries. I had serious doubts I
would ever see them again. Second, I had never been east of Minneapolis and
wanted to see eastern Canada and even Detroit. It made sense to me.
I had already made plans with
Della to drive west to Red Deer, Alberta to pick her up and drive us both back
to Regina. She had urged me not to go because of the expense. I barely had
money for school. I was already planning to go 1500 miles northwest to Red
Deer, but I wanted to make a return and go north to Hamilton, Ontario first, a
trip of nearly 1900 miles. I guess it didn’t make much sense. But I was pretty
sure I could afford the trip (cheap gas, young guy) and if not I would just
steal Franklins honeymoon money. That should cover it. I’m just joking. She
forgot to mention if would be another 560 miles from Red Deer to Regina. I was
a driving machine. Now I barely want to drive to the grocery store.
I don’t remember how it happened,
but I made a connection with a passenger heading that way. That saved some
money, in fact, I thing she paid for all the gas going there.
I arrived in Hamilton on an
afternoon and got reconnected with my friends. That afternoon we went to Franklin’s
home in Grassie, Ontario. Franklin remembers his family being very shy, and hardly talking. He
was really mad at them for not being more outgoing to his friend who had come
all that way. It really didn’t bother me. I was having the same problem
connecting with Della’s family. I’m not sure any of us really knew how to break
the wall down, but that didn’t change the joy of the situation.
Later that day we went to their ”cottage” as
they called it. It was a house his dad had built for a hired man. It was
vacant, and we slept together in the back bedroom. Donna and he later
lived in that house when going to India was delayed. They stayed in that
summer cottage in the Ontario winter. Yuck.
The bed had a miserable mattress and we fought banging into one another
much of the night, but it didn’t matter much as we were awake talking most of
the time. We talked about married life (of which we were ignorant). He was to
marry the next day and my marriage was not going to be for… who knew how far
into the future. I hadn’t even proposed yet.. Yes, sex was part of the talk.
Franklin said, “One evening Donna and I went shopping for groceries for
our honeymoon. You walked through the store with us feeling embarrassed. You
bought us a can opener and then beat it out of the supermarket and waited for
us outside. We had a good laugh.” Franklinly, I don’t believe a word of
it.
On the wedding day, we washed his dad's car and then put Kleenex
carnations and streamers on the car. His brother was a schoolteacher who
had a class competition for to make the nicest Kleenex carnation, then he kept
them all for the wedding. We should have decorated the car in Hamilton,
as much of the decoration came off in transit from Grassie. We got to the
church, and touched up the decoration job as best we could.
Before leaving for the church Franklin took a shower and then came over to
the cottage to get dressed. He was surprised that I was already in my tux.
“Why have you gotten dressed so early.” I said, "So that I now help
get you ready." He needed me. He struggled with the cummerbund and
the studs, especially. He even had the suspenders twisted. While he was
grateful, it made it even harder to say goodbye. It seemed like a forever
goodbye. We both had the sense this would be the end of the relationship.
Donna and Franklin. They graduated from college and ten graduated from the single life. Aren't they cute? It's the closest thing I could come to a wedding photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment