Late Saturday evening at Lindsay and Reid's wedding reception, I found myself taking a break from the dance floor and took a seat 'Courtside' with my daughter Pam's husband, Tim. We were simply watching folks on the dance floor having fun. Suddenly, I scanned the crowd and almost as if they came towards me in 3-D, I noticed one group closely together. It was my children and grandchildren having the time of their life because they were enjoying and laughing at the dance moves of their mother and Nana, my bride of 56-years. I leaned toward my son-in law, Tim and as I grabbed his arm, I said, "Tim. I hope you live to be an old man and one day see the blessing I am seeing this moment."
Gerry and I dated for seven years before we married in 1960, at ages twenty and twenty-one respectectively. You would know that during the seven year courtship, we spoke about and vetted every possible subject a couple could imagine. I suppose in retrospect it was a 'do it yourself pre-marital counseling.' Here we were sixty-three years later after sharing our first teenie-bop kiss, enjoying the wedding festivities of one of fifteen grandchildren...a blessing, indeed!
As I watched these grandkids laugh with one another, I thought back to the summer of 2002 when the first of six consecutive 'Naboo Camps' was held at Nana and Boompa's Decatur, Illinois home. For a solid week that grandparent's camp served to nurture and instill a family cousins' bond of unimaginable depth. They shall forever recall the costumed-theme dinners, talent shows, miniature golf, motor home excursions and certainly untold happenings kept secret from Nana and Boompa.
It is a wish often uttered aloud by parents when they say, "I hope my children are not alone when I am called to leave this world." How very blessed is Mel and Gerry. We can rest in true peace knowing our three children and their spouses are so connected in loving-caring relationships and 15 grandchildren plus two great grandchildren share the 'Naboo' bond...YES!
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