Journal Jar #71...Here comes the EPILOGUE! lol

I awake the next morning at my usual time and remember I am getting married today.....well at least I think I am......Do I call into work and let them know I might not be in today? Will anybody believe me when I tell them why? Oh to be a fly on the wall at the office today huh??? lol

Last night was a late night, It was John on the other side of my door that night...I think he came to talk me out of marrying Jim. He said some startling things to me that night, words I'm sure would have had an effect on me if I wasn't in love with another man.....but John knew I was, as many as you all do too now, just let your feelings you have for your significant other wash over you for a few minutes and then try and picture your life with someone else.......looses everything doesn't it?

Jim is who I loved, who I wanted my happily ever after with........I knew that in 1981 when I fell in love with him at first sight....I didn't know how and I certainly didn't know when but I knew we would someday be together........There were things that we had yet to experience, time had to pass, we had to mature, things had to happen, things that we had to go through in life without being by each others side and I think that is why some 24 years later we have yet to experience anything that can/could keep us apart. I believe in fate and I believe in destiny.......one wrong turn somewhere along the way and things probably would have worked out differently.

Somewhere around 10:00 a.m. that morning, I called my family......... I told them if they wanted to attend my wedding then to meet me at the court house by 12:30.......my sister still felt the need to ask me who I was marrying! LOL Jim showed up at my door with roses for me and roses for Amanda, it was a big day in her life too! Her Mom was marrying the man she called Daddy and Melissa was finally going to be her real sister! The grin on that little girls face was everything to me....I guess Jim showing up at my door was a way of making sure I was going to show up huh? The phone was ringing on our way out the door.....it was John......I just let it ring.

We arrive on time and Jim had all the paperwork needed to marry me and now all we had to do is wait for the Judge to marry us.....who by the way was late from coming back from lunch and who by the way 'drank' his lunch.....he not only smelled of whiskey he swayed in small circles while he went through the rituals of a civil service wedding, I found myself swaying in my own small circles too, just so to keep up with him and to stop the room from spinning myself...........was I really getting married? I don't remember saying my vows......I do remember the seriousness in Jim's voice as he said his vows to me and I saw that look, that old look of love in his eyes along with a few unshed shed tears and I actually said out loud......"You really do want to marry me today don't you?" He squeezed my hand and he looked even deeper into my eyes and said "More than anything!"

The I do's were over and I found myself married to the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with....we even had witnesses! lol But we both still had to provide proof to our friends and our coworkers.....who could blame them! lol So for a few weeks we both carried a copy of our marriage certificate on us.......I think I did to make sure it was true and that it really happened even if it was without the church and the gown and the honeymoon, even without the moonlit ceremony on the beach even without the little white chapel of love in Vegas.....in the end it's the marriage that counts not the wedding.......anyway I came from a long line of elopers...maybe it was supposed to happen that way.......both our parents eloped, my sister eloped and even my brother the confirmed bachelor eloped a year after I did......all of my parents children are on  their first marriages, that's kinda rare in itself if you really stop and thing about it....so many of our friends are on their second and third marriages......I can't even fathom that!

epilogue.......

Besides having the happily ever after which in this day and age is a rare thing unto itself to be if not more in love with one another and just how do I know I married the right man? This past winter after Jim returned from "The Boys" annual ice fishing trip with a bunch of his buddies he told me about one night at the bar and all guys were complaining about their wives and that he had nothing to complain about and then the subject turned to regrets.....(I know! A bunch of middle aged men....deep huh? lol) Some talked about choices that they made, some talked about other women in their lives, some talked about fortunes they won and lost and what was my guys only regret? That he wished he had taken better care of me that last year before we were married..... and how do I know this all to be true? Because the guys still give himhell for it from time to time! lol

Now you all know the beginning and middle of this love story........how it all ends, I don't know........But I still believe in the fairy tale and the happily ever after!