October has been a life changing month. Settling into our Petersham home has been
overshadowed by two events, one really happy and one terribly sad.
On Saturday 15th October Molldrew got married in
a simple ceremony held at Andrew’s Dad’s place.
It was a small event that will be followed by a bigger party in Sydney
and a renewal of the vows wedding ceremony in the United
States.
It was wonderful celebrating our love in such a fashion. Many thanks to Andrew’s Dad and Lee for their
help with the event. We had a three day
honeymoon at the beach, and plan to have a proper honeymoon (probably in Iceland)
after the renewal of the vows in the United
States.
Just four days later Molly’s grammie, Lucille Gertrude McKenzie,
died. Lucille was an intelligent,
talented woman who had a keen mind even as her health diminished. Watching Lucille’s spirit transcend into her
artwork even as arthritis affected her hands showed her immense power. We were so happy that we got to spend as much
time as we did with her when we were in the US
a month ago, and very grateful that Andrew got to meet her. She is missed.
Having dealt with two large events so close together, it
really drives home what is important in our relationship. While the wedding was great fun, it wasn’t a
big changing moment in our relationship.
The moment that brought us together was our wonderful 66.5-hour train
journey from Beijing to the Pakistani
part of the Himalayas in July 2010. The trip had immense highs (beautiful
scenery, food and companionship) and lows (food poisoning that you wouldn’t
believe!). Going through the trip
experiences together bonded us, and convinced us that we were the right people
to spend the rest of our lives with. (We will have to blog on that trip soon.)
In the end, the bigger event in terms of our relationship
was the sad death of Molly’s grammie.
With Molly being so far away from her family, the two of us bonded even closer
together to deal with the sad loss.
We look forward to getting the chance to celebrate our
wedding with friends and family in both Australia and the US!