Setting the Date

      And on the occasion of my parents' sixty-third anniversary! My folks, Jim and Mary, had been engaged for well over a year. Mary had been apprehensive all through their courtship. If she started to believe that the two of them were for real a couple, Mom felt that would be when the whole thing would fall apart. But when Dad proposed marriage, Mom knew if she continued to guard her heart and said, “no,” that Dad would definitely go away – and Mom had gotten kind of used to having him around; if she said “yes”, well that would be so risky; so Mom decided to say “yes” but not take the engagement at all seriously - and perhaps   Dad would hang around a bit longer.

      So that was how they came to be engaged for over a year.

      When New Years Day arrived in 1952, Dad said to Mom, “We need to set a date.”

      Mom answered, “Yeah.”

      Dad looked her in the eye and said, “Mary, I mean it.”

     “Yeah,” she responded, looking away, looking, she hoped, cute.

     “I'm serious! If we don't set a wedding date today, the engagement is off!”

     Their eyes met again. Mom started to get a little nervous.

     Dad continued, “You can pick the date – any date you want as long as it is sometime this year; in fact it has to be sometime before.......June 1^st!”

     Mom relaxed, gave a little smile, opened her mouth, and said, “May 31^st!”

      Next time you see a wedding anniversary date on a calendar, realize there is so much more to that date than just a month and a day and a year – oh my gosh, so much more!

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