Small Plates of Grandma Rosi Chapter #16 August 19, 2012 Wedding Bells
Dear family,
Dad and I are doing fine.
I am his slave and last night he told me he was grateful. (That is all I need.) He is back to his week day travels…mostly up
to the mountains (lookout, he has 4 wheel drive) or out to the lake. He likes to spend time just sitting and
looking at the world. We do have a
beautiful world. I get my “world” time
as I walk each morning. It is sweet.
The temple in Brigham
City is almost complete. The open house period begins very soon and
runs until mid-September. I would love
to go. Meet me there, okay? It is a gorgeous building and very
compelling. So much so that each time we
travel to Cache Valley I drive around it just to gawk. It is incredibly white. It seems to
shimmer. It is also very tall and
imposing. It sits just west of the old
tabernacle and stands like two pillars casting a shadow to the east.
Well, now to finish the account of Dad’s and my
wedding. August 25, 1967
Our wedding day began very early. I believe I got up about 4:00 a.m. We were married in the Salt
Lake Temple
because the Logan
Temple was closed for
cleaning. Waking so early, seemed to put
me in a daze all day. I suppose that we
arrived at the temple about 7 or 8 a.m. (The trip from Logan
to Salt Lake took about 2 hours.) In those days, you did the whole temple thing
in one day. (If I’d had one wish that
day, it would be that I had been partially prepared for that temple experience. Believe me, I was “green” and had no idea
what to expect.) Although I was nervous
and sometimes uncomfortable, the sealing ceremony was very special. One of the 12 Apostles married us. His name was Delbert Stapley and was a
distant cousin on the Isgreen side of the family. (Lorraine
use to call him “Uncle Del”.)
Lorraine,
Woody and others who did not go through the temple with us waited outside. It was probably 2:00 pm before we got out and
they were hungry. Lorraine was in bad temper and before the
day was out she and Arlynn had an argument.
(I imagine that most wedding days have some problem moments and this was
ours.) After the wedding breakfast we
made the two hour return to Paradise where we
rested for a short time and then prepared for the evening.
Pictures came first and there were plenty of them. (See attachments for a couple.)
We had a beautiful reception. The catering company provided a wonderful
buffet of color and appetite
appeal. We had rented a back screen to
stand in front of and our reception “line” was very attractive. (Arlynn helped me choose colors white, peach
and brown.) I believe there were five
bridesmaids and a best man plus the parents and children who stood in
line. (Kathy Fueston was just about 3
years old. A bad, old cat had bit her
arm and it was all swollen with infection.
She was so miserable, but she stood there all night helping hand out
“thank you scrolls”. Johnny Olsen was
also in line…a handsome little boy. There
was no air conditioning in the church and August was miserably hot. The Arlynn and Lorraine
battle continued because Lorraine
insisted on putting a fan behind the screen where she was standing. It was noisy and it blew the fabric away from
the screen. Arlynn had worked so hard
to make everything lovely that she was really annoyed. If you look carefully at the wedding pictures
you will see this annoyance in both of their faces.
Friends came from Reno
and presented a musical program. The
reception was so long. Bill and I were
both exhausted beyond belief. We
finally escaped and drove over to Brigham
City where we spent our first night at the Red Baron.
We had a flat tire the next morning which was repaired in
Brigham. Then we drove to Carson City and spent the
night. We attended church the next day
in Carson and
Bill introduced me as his new wife.
“This is Rosemary Olsen.” He left
off the Mathews part and the audience laughed. We left early Monday morning for
San Francisco
where we had our honeymoon. We stayed at
a famous old hotel there… the Fielding
Hotel.
Dad’s reflections:
+ He went into the marriage with no nieces or nephews and
after the marriage he had 19.
+While in San Francisco we
went to a Giant’s baseball game at Candlestick
Park. It was so fun. On the way home Dad was confused about which
way to turn when we stopped at a red light.
He stopped, then remembered which way to turn and with out waiting for
the light to change to green he pulled out and made the turn. The policeman who gave him the ticket only
laughed at his explanation.
+Dad took me to a nice restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf. (please remember the only fish I had eaten in
my early life were tuna and shrimp.) He
was anxious that I have a really good seafood dinner. He ordered for me. When the waiter arrived he placed a wonderful
swordfish fillet in front of Bill. I
thought “hummm, that looks pretty good.”
Then he placed this mess of rice and lobster in front of me. It looked a little bit like vomit and I said
to Bill “how could you do this to me?”.
(It was lobster newburg and I have since grown to love it.)
Well, that pretty much summarizes the wedding period of our
life. I am sure that tomorrow I will
remember something else, but for now I will let it rest.
I will close today with one final story. Dixie tells
me this story and it is important to me because it reflects the love which my father,
Lloyd, had for me. Arlynn reported to Dixie that one day soon after the wedding, she saw Daddy
climb the stairs, go into my bedroom and look in deep thought at my wedding
dress that was hanging on the back of the bedroom door. I am sure that he was thinking that his
little girl had just completed a big decision in her life, that she was gone
from his home and things would never be the same. Sometimes Dad and I feel this way about you
guys. You are gone from our home and we
miss you terribly. However, I am sure
that Lloyd would agree with us, you may be gone from our home but you are never
gone from our hearts. We love you full
heartedly.
Mom
