What's a Girl to Do?

Saturday was my father's birthday. If you remember, he had another heart attack December 31st. We were glad he was still around to celebrate it on Sunday with a huge birthday bash thrown by his wife and neighbors. To everyone else he's good, old Jack, but to me he will always be Daddy. Yes, after all these years, I still call him Daddy.

He's a little bit more fragile with the passing years, but he's getting along pretty good for a man of his

About a 1/3 of us

advancing age. The day was filled with laughter and tears. He was surrounded by family (children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren) He's got a lot to be grateful for and knows it. His neighbors are fabulous people. All it would take is a phone call from my stepmother that he's fallen and can't get him up, and they'd drop whatever they were doing to help. Most of us, these days, count ourselves as lucky if we even know our neighbors' names.

As always food abound. Mass quantities were prepared by these same neighbors who cooked for me and mine after my beloved died. They are more than neighbors, they are officially my extended family. No really! My oldest grandson stated dating, the catty-cornered girl next door. Her uncle is one of my father's neighbors.  It's all relative now that the two youngsters are serious. You could call it a small town mentality or a deep south thing except we aren't a small town with a population of over 100K (my daughter and her family actually live in another town all together) and the fact that we are transplanted southerners. But, it's still great that we can have the small town relationships.

The reason why we had Daddy's birthday party on Sunday is because my oldest daughter got married on Saturday. She's the one moving to Alaska in a few weeks. She and her beloved wanted to be married surrounded by their friends and family before the big move. I can't blame her.

Her beloved's divorce was supposed to be finalized in December 2015. So they planned their wedding accordingly. Wedding take a lot of planning, invitations sent out well in advance, formal wear to purchase and rent, flowers, the cake, etc. They wanted to have everything done before he got transferred out of the lower 47  States. Not many of us would be able to fly to Alaska.

As of Friday last, the judge had not signed the divorce decree. Without the final paperwork the couple could not get a wedding license. So what's a girl to do? I mean everything was set up for their wedding. They had an unwedding of course. I mean everything was bought, rented and paid for by this time. A friend of theirs "officiated" the wedding ceremony because legally I couldn't. Nobody wanted to to go jail.

It was a beautiful service. Fairly fun reception. Just a very long day for me. I'll still be available to marry them official until they leave.

So another busy weekend gone to top off a full week. This week is more of the same. One of these days I'm going to have to find time to pack up my house. The clock is winding down for my big move.