Jamaica Vacation – a break from cancer – sort of….
May 11th 2010PostmasterFamily & Fresh Starts & Intimacy
Hi everyone. Dianne again (Doug’s wife). We went to Jamaica with our daughter (our son could not go … he lives in Jasper) to attend a family wedding. I decided that I really wanted to surprise Doug in Jamaica and renew our vows…so I set out with my best friend (really my sister) Gayla and make all the advance preparations …minister…rings…etc. As it was Gayla’s son Gbengha getting married I had the help of his fiancée Liza to make the arrangements. Women are wonderful at espionage and secret keeping. I ordered new matching wedding bands and had them enscribed with “Always and Forever” (that took 2 months of waiting) and paid by cheque the day before we left for Jamaica…I knew Doug would be doing banking the night before we left and couldn’t leave a money trail. This was very hard work on my part. I told Doug we were attending the rehearsal of the bride and groom’s wedding…and that only a handfull of people were invited. The minister knew that Doug had no idea that this was going to happen…nor did our daughter Caralia until the night before when my friend Gayla asked her to be the ring bearer. Caralia was quite excited. On the day of our vow renewal ceremony we went to the pool, relaxed, swam and Doug wanted to go to the rehearsal in his bathing suit…no shower…he said “no one will notice me”. I responded that we should be dressed properly just in case pictures were being taken…he was not a happy camper but being the great man he is he said “o.k. Honey”. As we walked to the area on the beach where the so called rehearsal was Doug heard the Minister say his name and asked me…why does he know my name! I responded…Oh Honey, he knows everyone’s name that is invited…and he accepted my response. I was getting so excited as we approached the Minister. Doug talked to some of our friends there and I walked up to the Minister and informed him that Doug still did not know anything about the events that were about to happen…the Minister chuckled, walked over to Doug … shook his hand and said “Hey Mon. I’m Renewing your vows today”. Doug looked shocked and everyone else laughed. We stood facing each other, looking into each others eyes unaware of anything else but each other and repeated our vows “all over again”. I felt the breeze on my face, the sand at my feet, the sweet smell of the ocean, the warm sun on my face, the love all around me and my small hands held in his looking into his smiling eyes and life was good once again. A day I will never forget. Doug was speechless and anyone who knows Doug knows this is hard to achieve… We renewed our vows on Thursday April 15 2010…we were married on July 23 1977. For a moment in time it was just Doug and me and no cancer…
Posted by Dianne
