Saturday, January 5, 2019

Marriage and an Unexpected Gift


I got married 39 years ago - or so I thought. I mean, we had a ceremony. People came to witness the marriage and I even went on a honeymoon, a trip to Las Vegas. But a little over a year ago My mom called to ask me if I had a copy of my marriage license. Why on earth would she asking me this question? My dad performed our ceremony and on the day of the wedding had in his possession the license which needed to be mailed back to the county. Instead in the wedding chaos, the license got put on a shelf in my parent’s house...for 38 years.  How had this happened?

For Christmas my sister decided to help me finalize my marriage. She called the county where we had initially applied for our license and the clerk did find our records. She then tracked down three people who attended our wedding to get sworn statements which then had to be notarized. Then she went to the local library to pull the microfilm to get a copy of my wedding announcement and my dad’s obituary since he is deceased and would not be present to validate documents.

For Christmas I got a gift bag that said, “sealed with a kiss”. Inside the bag I found champagne glasses, bubbles and a packet with a poem, paperwork and instructions to follow at the courthouse. I would finally get my marriage license!

Yesterday, we finalized our marriage paperwork! Congratulations to the happy couple!


7 comments:

  1. That is a great story! Of course, there'll be another honeymoon--right?

    Best,
    Bonnie

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    1. Bonnie, I guess stranger things happen but this one was so strange...and funny. My kids have had a heyday making fun of us but in truth, they were glad that for the record, we are married.

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  2. Cheryl, what a story! This could be a clever short story if you are so inclined to write it all up. At least you need to write up the account and keep it with the newly acquired marriage license. Thanks for sharing! Happy NewYear!

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  3. This story reminds me of the movie - I think it's My Fat Greek Wedding II - but better because it's real life!

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  4. I understand how strange it feels when one question our marriage after so many years. I happened to me recently but not for a happy reason. After my husband passed last October I finally called Social Security to tell them. They said they did not have a record of our marriage 51 years ago and that they showed me under my maiden name. Luckily when we went back to San Francisco in 2013 we went to the church and I made a copy of our signatures on the pastor’s book on our wedding day, and had it on my blog. I had then to send a registered letter to San Francisco, with a cashiers’ check. They sent me a copy of the license. Now the SS records show that I was married, but also that now I am a widow. Your story is a lot happier.

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  5. Wow! What a crazy story! Glad you got it all worked out! Have a great weekend. Happy Easter!

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  6. Oh my! This is certainly something that doesn't happen every day! I imagine you were HUGELY surprised to find out your marriage had not been finalized. What a wonderful gift from your sister. So guess CONGRATULATIONS is in order:) Wishing you many more years of "married" bliss:) (My name is Cheryl too.)

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