Happy 15th, my dear

Happy 15th, my dear

It was a wild week at the ol' community newspaper. From customer appreciation, to a few parades. From playoff high school football to old elevators being toppled in Saco.

There was no shortage of news, that is for sure. Some weeks are busier than others at the PCN, but last week seems like it was the busiest (at least in my 89-weeks as captain of the ship.)

While all the goings-on kept me busy all weekend long, one event -- the most important to me -- was somewhat short-changed and not as eventful as I would have liked.

My wife, Charity, and I celebrated our 15th year of marriage on Halloween.

"Wedding Anniversary on Halloween?" you ask? That's the fact.

Now my wife and I are big fans of Halloween, but that is not why we decided to wed on that day. The two of us met while we both were attending college in Missoula, her for teaching, me for journalism. It was a whirlwind romance (whether you believe in that cliché or not) and after meeting for the first time on my birthday (Leap Year of 2000) we knew we were meant to be together forever and five months later decided we would wed sooner rather than later. Our initial thought was that we would elope, get hitched at City Hall and head to Las Vegas for some R&R.

"Not so fast," said my soon-to-be mother-in-law. Charity is lone daughter to her mother and there was no way she was going to let her only daughter go to the alter without a wedding crammed full of friends and relatives.

As a compromise to the "big wedding," Charity decided that we would get married on Halloween and, in turn, request all of our friends and family come to the shindig dressed to the nines in their finest contraction of All Hallows' Evening attire.

My brother, the preacher who performed the ceremony, dressed as a 1970's gameshow host in a fancy leisure suite. The Maid of Honor came dressed in a wonderful Celtic gown and the Best man was dressed as Mad Max from Road Warrior.

It was quite a night, believe me.

Some people may say a Halloween Wedding is corny or feel that we didn't take the vows seriously because of the costumes and hi-jinx (though Charity wore a beautiful wedding dress and I, a tux.) To those nay-sayers I would respond with this:

15-years later and we are just as happy today as we have ever been.

I love you, my dear, and look forward to 50+ more wonderful years with you...and the Trick-or-treaters.