MY BROTHER’S WEDDING

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—By Frederick A. Hurst—

Rick & Bobby Hurst
My brother and I chatted casually as I walked him to the gazebo

More than a year ago my brother asked me to be in his wedding. Though I’m not big on weddings, I certainly couldn’t turn him down. He is a good man who has paid his dues. He was still grieving from the loss of his wife when he joined a dance group where he met Tina Robinson, who is as lovely a person as you’ll ever want to meet. They soon bonded and planned their May 23rd wedding a year down the road.

The wedding ceremony was performed in Galveston, Texas in the gazebo on the luscious grounds of the San Louis Resort. I was the best man and my wife, Marjorie, the matron of honor. The minister who performed the ceremony was the bride’s mother and one of her brothers along with Bobby’s son were the photographers. Everyone in the wedding party was family and the several dozen who watched from the audience were family and close friends.

My brother and I chatted casually as I walked him to the gazebo where he was positioned in the shady interior and I was just outside in the hot sun hoping for a quick ceremony as the perspiration immediately began to form on my brow. After the remainder of the wedding party was positioned and the guests seated, we all waited with baited breath for the appearance of the bride and I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that she gave a performance that I don’t ever expect to see repeated in my lifetime. Tina came out of a side door alone about 60 feet away in a long gown with a long train trailing behind her and immediately began moving to the music of “Fall for You” by Leela James, a song far from the “Here Comes the Bride” theme. Her theme song was a message to the groom so smooth and so powerful and so well coordinated with dance moves and gestures of affection that it caused me and most in the crowd to tear up. She paused about 15 feet away from the gazebo and continued to entreat her husband-to-be through song with emotion so deep that you could tell that he was contemplating coming for her.

He didn’t. But as she finally climbed the steps of the gazebo, he embraced her with a passion that spoke to the beauty of the permanent bond that was being formed. The ceremony could have ended at that moment. These were two people obviously deeply in love. Thankfully for all of us who were directly in the hot sun, the formal part moved swiftly and we all moved to the cool hotel interior for libation where the bride and groom, accompanied by good folks, danced for several hours like there was no tomorrow.

The day could have ended there for me. But later that evening, just as I was considering retiring, my brother and his new wife called and suggested we go out to dinner along with his son, Daron, and his lovely wife, Erica. As he always does, Bobby, who is a minister, insisted we hold hands and pray before the meal. And from that point on it was just pure, unadulterated fun. I can’t remember relaxing so thoroughly in years. And it was such a pleasure to renew our relationship with my nephew and his wife. The next day at breakfast Bobby appropriately referred to it as “Saturday Night Live.” It was such a pleasure to be around family who could just let loose. I’ve felt relaxed ever since. And I made a commitment to myself that evening to surround myself with such folks more often. So I look forward to joining them on our summer of 2016 Alaska cruise which Bobby and Tina consider their honeymoon and which I consider a continuation of my renewed commitment to stay close to a beautiful couple.

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