Weddings

I remember Dan standing next to Kit in 1970. I was coming down the aisle at the First Presbyterian Church in Lindsay, California, dressed in a white gown and walking next to our father. I remember Dan because he was Kit's best man and he towered over the groom! Kit was 5'8" and Dan was 6'3". Both were dressed in full morning coats (remember cutaway coats?) which accented height and it was all I could do not to giggle. Kit remembers that he was the shortest guy in the line because the rest of the groomsmen were all over 6' (Bill was one and Jim Jackson was the other). I also remember him helping our grandmother (Nana) through the reception line. Nana's blood pressure was dangerously high that day but she would not stay home so Dan stayed with her whenever he could.

Dan was in lots of weddings. He was Bill's best man when Bill and Bernie were married and again when Bill and Kathy married. When Bill married Kathy Dan was ecstatic. Bill had gone through terrible grief with Bernie's death and his finding happiness again was something Dan and I had long hoped for. At that time Dan had been a long haul trucker for quite sometime and dress clothes were not his thing. But he bought a brand new suit. And he looked spiffy. Tall and lanky and spiffy. He gave the toast to his brother and his bride that night in front of several hundred people and he looked spiffy. Tall and lanky and spiffy.

The other wedding I remember with Dan was Melodie's. On a paddle wheel boat in Mission Bay in San Diego, he was so proud of his niece. There we were--Bill, Dan and Gael Ann--watching my daughter get married in a wedding that she planned. A graduate of UC Irvine, Dan's buttons busted every time he spoke of her.

And that is the wedding that brought this all up. In my office is a picture of Bill, Dan and Gael Ann next to the railing of the paddle wheel boat as it made its trip around Mission Bay. I would not trade that picture, that day, or any of those days for anything in this world.

I would trade them to have him back.