It Was A Glorious Day

In a moment, for a season, everything changed.

It was as if the Marilyn I knew of old had re-awakened from a long and dark sleep. One kiss from her Prince, and Sleeping Beauty was alive, reborn into happily ever after. For the next six months, and for some time after she was content and bright in a normal and consistent way. The headaches remained, but the depression seemed to be gone. The drinking faded into the background, now nothing more than the standard level of social consumption that one expects for a Northern California couple. Fighting ceased, at least the nasty kind.

Marilyn has a big family, a brother and several sisters and a tribe of nieces and nephews.
Led by her somewhat formidable mother, the clan engaged to create what was to be the final blowout family wedding, The Social Event of the Central Coast. Dresses were bought, churches and country clubs rented. The bridal party included the entire family on both sides, and I still had to enlist a posse of my guy friends just to have enough groomsmen to balance the bridesmaids and matrons. The event planning rivaled a Westminster wedding, or maybe even D-Day. Marilyn threw herself into it with a gusto. The black sheep, the forever single bad girl was finally making good.

Sex stayed amazing. Her newest trick, was to flip over and reach back to her ass cheeks and pull them apart for me. There were a few others, you get the idea.

I was happy for her and us, and loved every minute of that time. I was beginning to think that the problems of the past year were my doing, if I had just been more open to getting married she would have been fine. She just needed me to take a stand for her.

Lets talk about that for a minute, because I want to clear up some lingering doubts that the reader may have formed. First, this is my story, so obviously it is my point of view. Let me be clear, I am no saint. I have a number of faults and quirks, some known to me back then, others I was not conscious of till much later. My father was a raging alcoholic and my mother, a lifelong co-dependent. They modeled a home life that was chaotic, confrontational and often irrational. I have never hit a woman or a child, and I am not one to start fights, but when challenged, like I said, I fight like a Panzer Division, all shock and awe. I tear deep into weak spots and overwhelm and overrun. Back then I had huge abandonment issues, so while I was not one to hover and control, I was hyper sensitive to certain "clues" that looked like abandonment, either emotional or physical, and could over react accordingly.

Marilyn had huge issues, and I had a few of my own, and it took me a long time to come around. But what she had never had before was a guy who would take a stand, commit to her, stay with her through all the yukey stuff. I thought that her behavior of the second year was a lot of the pushing away behavior that had driven off the good ones before, and now that I was standing up for her, she was in a safe place. We had wounds, but together we would heal them for each other.

It is hard to get an untainted recollection of my true thoughts at that time, too much has happened in the ensuing decade plus. But I had a model of her and of us in my head that looked like this:

She was damaged
I was flawed
She needed someone to stand by her
I loved her
She loved me
Regardless of the problems, we were in this together
We both felt that way

So we would be ok, no matter what. We loved each other, and that is all that mattered.

That, and I have never lost that image of us that first year we were together, dating. I always felt that it was the true "us".

Well, to make a long story short, the planning was perfect. On a fine October weekend, we all mustered from the four corners of the compass to the Central Coast of California. October in San Luis Obispo is without a doubt, one of the great moments, up there with Spring in Paris, or Christmas in New York. In the church she grew up in, eight attendants, three ushers, four flower girls, one ring bearer and a cast of family and friends bore witness as we pledged to have and to hold, till death do us part, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

She was radiant, breathtaking, like a queen of High Elves out of an Ancient Legend.

When we walked down that isle as husband and wife, I never before or since saw her happier.

The reception was a grand party, with toasts, and food and dancing. Her parents were happy, the family was happy. The kids were having a blast. We danced together, we danced with every body. Everyone we knew was there and all had a stellar time. We had so much fun we did not want it to stop, and when it was over a bunch of us went into SLO town, took over a bar and kept things going deep into the night.

It was a Glorious Day.