Saturday, October 22, 2011

22nd October

What a special day. I now have three married daughters and they’ve all chosen wonderful partners, what more can a father ask for? The happy couple wanted a simple fun day out with only a small group of closest friends and family at the actual wedding. So we’ve spent the day at the Midland Railway Centre, a preservation railway, with the marriage ceremony in a signal box and the lunchtime reception in a dining car pulled by steam train.



I’d wondered what it might feel like as I’m quite big on church weddings myself, but actually it was beautifully moving, being very sensitively led by the duty registrar and included a couple of great readings. I enjoyed sitting with my son-in-laws parents and gran, the food was excellent, the weather was perfect and my four grandchildren were as delightful and entertaining as ever. The party has continued right through the day and tonight they’ve booked a room in Derby for more of their friends to come and celebrate. My new son-in-law hosts a website promoting some local bands and a couple of them agreed to play this evening so that was fun, though rather loud. But when I was a lad – that phrase too easily rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? – I remember Status Quo playing in a not much bigger venue only a few hundred yards away and they were seriously loud. Anyway, tonight was apparently some sort of Indie Pop and though I don’t pretend to understand the genre, I can recognise and enjoy great musical skill when I see it. And they’ve honed to perfection the ability to lay down multiple musical loops producing a big sound for a three piece band. But the image of my five year old grand-daughter dancing the night away really made it for me…

Today could have been very difficult but each of my four kids in different ways has been really considerate, continually asking after my wellbeing. And my bridal daughter has some close friends who also made a special effort to befriend the ‘old man’. One of them even chose to say a particular thankyou for my part in making the day happen, which I thought was very considerate… dads have to pay for daughters’ weddings don’t they? I did have to make a little space this afternoon though and I came home to be alone for an hour or two in between events. I picked up my guitar to play one of the songs I’d performed at Jane’s funeral – Amazing Grace blues version – and then spent a while crying out to the Lord. Ok, it was more like crying with the Lord for a few seconds until the real sobbing kicked in. One day I’ll get past this phase, but not today. I’m basically very happy really though.

Oh yes I forgot to mention, the bride was beautiful. Actually, spectacularly beautiful… Anyway I survived a twelve hour celebration before calling it a day and I’ve left the youngsters to party for a while yet. Tomorrow I’m the taxi to the airport and they’re honeymooning in Amsterdam for a week. Then I’ll be getting to grips with editing the ‘official’ wedding video, so I just hope I managed to capture enough footage as I’ve very little experience of movie making and it could be a bit random. We’ll see.

Psalm 127:3 ‘Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.’ (NLT)

No comments: