MAY 22, 1965

It started out as a rainy, gloomy day and ended as a sunny beautiful Saturday, filled with promise, love, hope and happiness. It was the first wedding to come out of our family of 5 children.

Chuck Berry premiered ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and my new brother-in-law John was! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6baNOuwCdy4

Ticket to Ride by the Beatles goes to Number One on the pop charts, Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious hits #66", LBJ presents the Great Society, and Robert A Rushworth, USAF major, takes the test jet X-15 to over 19 miles!

It was a day where the limo carrying the newly weds left the church for pictures and got a flat tire, and hey, ain’t that a kick.

The historic La Grange Inn was decorated for the festivities and all my aunts, uncles and cousins sat around making notes about whether they liked the band, place and/or food, my sister’s dress or the flowers, but they all agreed they liked her new husband.

I wanted them to decorate the cake in pepperoni and kielbasa to mark the mixture of Italian/Polish unity but was told I was too political minded and to get back under the table.

It is 47 years later, and they still seem to look the same, they are the same couple they were so long ago, and watching them made the years seem to fly by, it is fun seeing a marriage work.

TESSIE (MY OLDER SISTER (MUCH OLDER), me, NICK ADAMS AND LAURIE ANN THEIR DAUGHTER

As for me; you know the old adage, I didn’t lose a daughter, I gained a son? Well, I didn’t lose a sister: I gained a wonderful brother.

The first time John showed up at the house had to be around 1963, and the popular TV show, The Rebel was running with a popular song: ‘Johnny Yumar Was A Rebel’ was hitting the charts, when who walks in but his double for the first time! Damn if he didn’t look like Nick Adams.

It seemed whenever you were out in public with Tessie my older sister (Much older), she would meet someone she knew, and we had to stop while she chatted, or got re-acquainted with. Meanwhile John would be out in his boat, or softball field or golf course, or maybe even behind the intricacies of an IBM machine as a customer engineer, his suitcase of tools beside him.

Anyway, 47 years have past, they had 2 beautiful daughters, and A handsome son, PLUS 5 grandsons, a great home filled with the challenges of everyday life, and yet they stick together, a family, willing to do what needs to be done in this world to survive.

Today, they struggle with John’s illness, but they struggle as a team, as a family as they know they have everyone’s support.

Everyone in the family loved the couple, because in spite of their troubles, they bring a little sunshine into a gloomy world, all by themselves.

Happy Anniversary, Tessie and John!