“For better or for worse. In sickness and in health.”
I love weddings and Tracey and I have had the honour of being invited to two this spring. As we sat listening to Kate and Jackson’s vows last night I had the biggest smile on my face.
I was holding Tracey’s hand as the vows were being said and every one of those sentences rang out like a true contract to me. When I was married I don’t think I gave them a second thought, they were simply the vows you said in order to be with the woman you loved. But after 22 years of marriage with the last few being as interesting as ours I couldn’t help but dig in to each of the vows as the newlyweds were saying them. And since we had heard similar vows being proclaimed just a month earlier by Sarah and Jeremy it gave me a chance to better digest as I was hearing them again.
And you know what, I cried. I never cry at weddings. I cry at funerals and now this was the second wedding I cried at in 30 days. My emotions just built up till a couple of tears rolled down my cheek. There were many emotions, but the first was joy, and it was joy at both weddings. And not just the proud wedding joys that the couples, families and friends were experiencing but a deep personal prideful joy.
All four of these beautiful humans had met while working at Village Brewery. Somehow a culture of love and respect has been fostered at the brewery that enables beautiful relationships like this to blossom. And as I sat there holding Tracey’s hand last night, while Michael Fitzgerald was playing ‘I will Follow’, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of pride for the power of this brewery.
It takes a Village indeed.
But my real emotions were on display as I sat there thinking of how real those vows had become. How true you have to hold them in your heart and execute them fully each and every day. When I think of the sickness and health portions I obviously was thinking about Tracey’s side of the wedding contract. She has been upholding them our whole marriage but obviously the last three have been tough years in this house. Years where she has not wavered one iota, not an inch, not a degree from the vows we took when we were married in Fernie. She is a very special woman, and I am a lucky man, and as I sat holding her hand I couldn’t help but think of us and our vows and all the great things we have accomplished together.
And the tears of gratitude rolled down my face.
I guess now I cry at weddings.