katlefiya's Diaryland Diary

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Polly is happy.

Home.
it's very surreal being back in calgary. It smells a lot better than London does, though.
Ok, the Quaker wedding ceremony:
there were about 50 or 60 of us crammed into this small room. Polly and Duncan sat at a heavy wooden table in the front with their witnesses and 2 Elders.
First one of the elders got up and explained how it works. We would sit and wait and when Polly and Duncan felt the time was right, they would stand up and say their vows to each other, after which anybody was welcome to stand up and say something they felt was appropriate, or to give congratulations to the happy couple. The Elder sat down and we waited. And waited, and waited.
Finally, Duncan stood up, Polly came with him. He looked into my sisters eyes with such love, devotion, care and fondness and said: I Duncan, take you, my friend, Polly, in the presence of God and these our Friends, to be my wife, promising with Divine assistance to be to you a loving and faithful husband as long as we both shall live.

Polly took a few moments (she was crying) before saying the same to him (with the obvious adjustments), also looking into his eyes with love, devotion, care and fondness.

They sat down and again we waited. Probably 10 minutes went by before
Polly's witness, Laura, stood up to give congratulations to the happy couple. Then other people started standing up. It was slow at first, people were still a little bit nervous, I think. Eventually I stood up, told my story about how Polly had texted me when she first met Duncan and told me how she had "found a man to fancy", how I knew that it was the sign of a change in her life. Polly had been going through a really bad patch in her life. The company she was working for had gone under, she had the mortgage to pay on the flat she had just bought, our grandmother was having surgery to remove a tumour, her mother, who has serious psychological issues, had moved to the same city, her last relationship had ended badly. She was feeling alone, stressed, she needed a change.
When I got that text, I cried, because it was the first truly happy thing I had heard from Polly in a long time.

Anyway, back to the ceremony. After I had sat down, my father stood. He stood silently for a few seconds and then said: I am Polly's father, and I would simply like to say how happy I am *pause* that Polly is finally *choke* happy. And with that he started to wrack with sobs. I had never seen him that emotional. He sat down we hugged each other, cried together. Everybody started crying. Especially the men. Literally the whole room was awash with tears. The other most moving speech came from my uncle. He's a very lively man, he used to be a fantastic orator, brilliant guitarist, but last year he had a stroke. He's still completely there mentally, but he can't get the words out.
He stood up and gestured to himself "I..." gestured to the room "We..." held his hand over his heart "Right...." gestured to Polly and Duncan "Good." And sat down. He said it better than anybody else could.
Finally, when everybody had said their peace, the Elder's shook hands, which signalled the end of the ceremony. Everybody in the room signed the marriage certificate and we went off to get blindingly drunk and jovial at the ceilidh reception.
It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever gone to, and probably ever will, including my own future wedding. Simply because Polly deserved it so much more than anybody else I have ever known. She deserved this happiness.

4:33 a.m. - 2004-10-04

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