Tuesday, August 07, 2007

The rest of the story



This is right after we came back to the house after getting engaged. We were waaaay out in the country when Chris proposed and we'd just rode back on a four-wheeler through mud, wearing helmets, etc... so we're not looking our best and our photographer had posed us with our arms linked - which was hugely uncomfortable. I tell you all of this by way of an explanation of our looking a bit confused - but can you see how happy we both are?
See the toasting glasses? My very thoughtful Sister-in-Law bought those for us and brought them (remember, the whole family was in on the surprise) as well as with several bottles of champagne. It was a big celebration! I had many, many glasses full!



This is the road that led us out to our engagement spot. Pennsylvania is so much more than just my home - its beauty overwhelms me. I can't imagine what my grandfather thought when he first found the acres that would come to be our family's special vacation spot.
40 years ago he bought this piece of land that would in later years become the meeting place of our family for generations. He made a place in the world for us that would see not only my engagement, but the engagement of my Aunt and Uncle, my Mom and Dad and one of my cousins. It is a place where all of the children in our family have been bathed in the kitchen sink - starting with my brother. It is full of friendly ghosts of my childhood. It is a place where we bring only our most cherished friends and it is still a place where we all come together to share and laugh and visit with each other. Can you repay that kind of gift? Does he know what the trees know? Some of those trees have been there since the civil war. These trees and these roads are the very fabric of my family - they know what we know - that sharing these moments together is what means the most to all of us. They provide the comfort and the quiet that we all need when the rest of the world squeezes a little too hard.
Thanks, Pop. Thank you for giving us this rare gift of a steadfast place to keep our family together forever. Even now that you and granny have gone on - we come here and we remember and we carry on the love and the lives that you provided for us. Thank you so very much.
All the news, that's fit to knit.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hmmmm - even after mud and helmets it's amazing how "happy" can make any picture look good. :D And just that simple picture of the road through the woods makes me miss PA a little bit... so pretty!

Once again, congratulations! So exciting! Hopefully you'll be able to stop by when you're in Columbus, even just for a little bit in the morning, so we can catch up in person.