This weekend we celebrated my mother and father-in-law's 60th wedding anniversary up in Charles City, Iowa. The actual anniversary is the 18th of this month, but there were conflicts next weekend. We attended 4:30 Mass at their church, and their priest was to offer a special blessing for them. This was the weekend that the Catholic Church celebrated all marriages, so that was a happy coincidence. As it turned out, their priest had a pacemaker put in so he was unable to officiate. A visiting priest stepped in to cover Mass. Before the service began, he approached a couple in the front pew and asked if they were the Woltermans. He must have wondered how they had lasted 60 years because there was a four foot space in between the two of them! We motioned to Father that the couple he was looking for was in the third pew. He explained that he would offer a blessing after communion.
It was really great when all the parishioners broke into applause as he asked them to step forward. What an accomplishment! After we finished with Mass we went to a restaurant in New Hampton for supper. Unfortunately they were understaffed both in number of employees as well as employee capabilities. The service was slow, only two meals came out and the rest followed probably 15 minutes later. My father-in-law didn't get what he ordered and several side dishes were incorrect. On top of that the food was only so-so. Very disappointing for such a special occasion. But it was nice to have all of us together for the weekend, even though our children were not able to attend. It takes a lot of living and loving to get to 60 years.
1 comment:
Oh, that's all so nice, except the meal. Par for the course in a small town.
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