Blessed to be a blessing

 

AUGUST 9, 2022 It's our 9th Anniversary. Well, one of our Anniversaries.

It was at 8 AM, August 9, 2013, in a booth at the Long Neck Diner when we gathered with our dear friends, Anita Broadrick and Bill Schatzabelle, and Bea, a former Roman Catholic nun and Hospice Chaplain, to be finally, officially, legally married.

We had struggled with the decision of whether or not to be married in a church. At that point in time, The Episcopal Church had not yet authorized the blessing of the covenant of marriage made by couples of the same gender.

We thought about having our then rector and his spouse come to the house, have the marriage ceremony and blessing, celebrate with a lovely dinner and champagne out on the deck, and call it a win.

We couldn't. As Ms. Conroy said, "Hell, we've been more of a blessing to the church than the church has been to us."

Me Irish lass has a way of bluntly stating the undeniable truth.

That did it. So, Long Neck Diner it was. Having a former RC nun officiate seemed absolutely right. We had a great breakfast, the license was signed as required, a few fellow diners smiled and applauded and we went off to work.

And, just like that, 37 years of the denial of our civil rights fell away like dry scales from the eyes of the blind. All those years of anxiety and worry about the custody of our kids, all those tears shed over isolation and exclusion and prejudice which influenced where we could live and what jobs we could hold were moved from difficult reality to bad memory.

Three years later, we would have our covenant blessed at All Saints' Church in Rehoboth Beach by our dear friend, +Gene Robinson but at that moment, the Long Neck Diner was the perfect place for us to tie up the loose, legal ends of our covenant of marriage.

Funny, but our "anniversary date" will always be in October - the day we made our vows to each other in 1977 (So, our 45th Anniversary. Wow!) But, this date is worthy of note, too, as the day the rest of the country and the church woke up to the truth that love is love is love.

And, love makes a family.