Lashed By Storms- CH 3

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,

Chapter Three

Wedding Day - January 1, 1988

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. Mark 10:7-9

             “Once I agreed to a date, I didn’t have much time to plan a wedding. Christmas and a new year were fast approaching. I managed to put aside my tiredness and occasional nagging feelings of depression to focus on wedding details. I knew I’d have to stretch every dollar, but I also wanted a meaningful ceremony Mike and I would cherish. God would be joining us together, and no one was going to change that.”

            Anne chose deep peach and green for her wedding colors, and three lilies for her bouquet. She found a clearance sale and purchased two dresses for a total of sixty dollars. They would be perfect for her two attendants. Her own gown was one she had found eighteen months earlier at a J.C. Penney store. It was the wedding dress of her dreams. She had put the gown on lay-a-way, for $160. She arranged for the reception to follow the ceremony, and paid for the buffet meal.

            “I wanted to have an early-afternoon ceremony, but I felt it necessary to respect the wishes of my aunts and uncles. They were an important and stable influence in my life, and I wanted all of them present. They wanted to continue a long-established tradition of watching their favorite New Year’s Day football games, so I planned an evening ceremony.”

            If Anne’s dad had lived, perhaps she wouldn’t have acquiesced to her relatives’ request. But without him, and with her mother so heavily into drugs, Anne was on her own in making decisions. After all, the wedding wouldn’t be happening if Mike hadn’t given her an ultimatum. She realized she had left him little choice.

            “Mike’s mom, Barbara, came to me, offering to arrange for and pay for a cake for the reception. I thanked her profusely, and I asked that she please make sure the icing would be deep peach in color.”

            Cold, humid air greeted guests as they made their way from the parking lot into the warmth of the historic Spring Mill Inn in Mitchell, Indiana, for Anne and Mike’s wedding. A thick sheet of ice covered the street, brought about by that morning’s freezing drizzle. The fifty wedding invitations had listed the ceremony for 6:30. They might as well have sent a hundred invitations. It seemed everyone in Mitchell was determined to see the oldest Schlegel son marry.
            The Schlegel family was well-known in Mitchell and beyond. Mike’s dad, Dr. Rex Schlegel, was affectionately referred to as the “contact king” of southern Indiana. If you needed or wanted contact lenses, he was the optometrist to work with.
            Anyone who knew Mike’s mom recognized her always-perfect hair, even from a distance. Not only did she have perfect hair, she wore name-brand jewelry, perfectly coordinated clothes and shoes, minimal but perfect makeup, and kept a perfect home. She and Rex were a striking couple.

            “I would later learn Mike’s dad found me quite likeable, but his mom wasn’t pleased because we weren’t being married in a church setting. And, she was having a hard time accepting her first-born was marrying a woman with an addict for a mother, and hair that never seemed to be in place. There were times I took that as her having reservations about me, but Mike reassured me that his mom did indeed love me. Later, I would learn she was sad because she knew she’d never be able to have a relationship with her son’s mother-in-law.”

            As guests were being seated, Anne quickly made one last check of the buffet, set up in another room. There, at the end of the table, was the cake her soon-to-be mother-in-law had ordered. The icing was pastel peach, not the deep peach Anne had specifically requested.

            “The minute I stepped forward to become Mike’s wife, I could sense all eyes on me. I knew my family was proud of the way I’d handled myself as a young girl, taking care of Dad and doing what I could for my mother. I also sensed tears were forming in their eyes as they listened to our traditional vows. It was a beautiful double-ring ceremony.

“Our family and friends cheered as the officiant pronounced us husband and wife, and the next thing I knew, Mike was giving me a kiss and whispering in my ear that I was the girl of his dreams.”

While Spring Mill employees finished last-minute touches for the reception, the photographer requested members of the wedding party gather for pictures. Family members watched, knowing they also would be asked to pose with the bride and groom. Anne’s attendants made sure her dress was perfectly draped, and her hair as in place as it would go.

“Just as the photographer snapped the first picture, my mother fell to the floor, stoned. Her face-plant was embarrassing, but not surprising. I can still see the look on Barbara’s face. Her expression captured, for me, her true feelings about my mother, as well as about me.”

***

I was appalled when Anne told me about her mother’s face-plant. What mother embarrasses her daughter in that fashion? Anne said she truly wasn’t surprised by her mother’s behavior, but guests with no knowledge of Margie’s drug addiction must have been shocked and embarrassed for the newlyweds and their families. As Anne and I agreed to a time for our next meeting, I wondered what more I would hear about Margie.

Chapter Three

Continue to Chapter 4