Wedding Wednesday: March 2, 1947

 

My mother's wedding portrait

In this week's Wedding Wednesday we're going back in time to a wedding that took place on March 2, 1947 in Hartford, Connecticut. The beautiful bride is my mother. I rediscovered this photograph during my most recent round of decluttering. There was a smaller framed version on my parents' dresser when I was growing up, but that was over fifty years ago. When I saw it again last month, it was as though I'd never seen it before. 

My parents met in October, 1946. They were introduced by a couple who was friends with both sets of my grandparents. My mother lived in Hartford and my father in Brooklyn. There was no quick interstate highway between the two cities, just the Merritt Turnpike and the Hartford, New Haven and New York Railroad. In the five months between first meeting and their wedding they decided to get married, became engaged and planned a large, formal wedding. No internet, no cell phones and no texts, just the U.S. mail and the telephone to keep the relationship going and put the wedding together.  

Though they'd spent very little time together before they married, somehow it worked. Their personalities were very different, but their values were right in step together. Family and family time together, faith and country were top of the list. They were both voracious readers, books and newspapers, and they were happy to bring me along in the family pastime. We raked leaves as a family, shoveled snow as a family, visited historic sites as a family and loved summer weekends at the Connecticut shore with extended family.   

Even fairy tale weddings and the stories that follow them come to an end. My parents were married for 34 years, until my father passed away in 1981. But like fairy tales, the memories of the story live on, especially in the memory of those who loved them. 

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. Your love and your story live on in my memory.    

As ever, thanks for visiting and take good care.