My son Anthony was married June 19th, 2010.  I loved every minute of the celebrations and enjoyed all the family and friends who attended.   It was all  so much fun, there was a lot of happiness and laughter.  Anthony looked so handsome and Elizabeth so beautiful!  But I can't help it, my mind spins around and around in a whirlwind of memories and I'm back in New Bedford on North Front street planning  our own wedding details.  That last week, I moved back home from Boston.   I told my Dad, who loved to sing with his cronies, not to sing Portuguese songs at my wedding, that I wanted an "American " reception and my sister Cecilia, who was part of the conversation,  says:  "Why not?  I told them that I didn't want the MIT fraternity brothers and Frank's  New York relatives  to make fun of us or feel uncomfortable.  Cecilia said, " how can any reasonable person make fun of you on your wedding day, are you crazy?"  My Dad told me calmly  "Don't  worry, whatever makes you happy. "

 

 Oh, my wedding was wonderful, three o'clock in the afternoon, Immaculate Conception church on Earle Street, pictures at Buttonwood Park and the reception at which then was known as Gaudette's pavilion.  We did the grand march and all and the fraternity brothers sang their song and serenaded me with sweetheart of Phi Kappa Theta and we left for our honeymoon and new life in Florida.    The years slipped by, one after the other, then one day I was watching the movie "Mystic Pizza" which introduced Julia Roberts.   The end of the movie featured a wedding scene and a brief Portuguese song.  It took me off guard and I cried.  I cried inconsolably and felt guilty at denying my father  a chance to sing at my own wedding. 

 

  I told this story at a recent gathering and my husband said I should have asked him that he would have loved to have my Dad sing, which by the way, I always enjoyed and felt pride in how handsome he was.  I added that when I visited my Dad many, many years later I asked him to forgive me and he said there was nothing to forgive, one of our friends said, "Maria he knew you were young, in love and stupid and he forgave you that same minute."  I sat by my Dad's bed the last week of his life and we sang together. We said good -bye him April, 2004 but his presence, like my Mom's is ever present.  Thinking about our upcoming reunion puts me in a nostalgic mode and I enjoy the reflections.