For Better or For Worse

I've been to a lot of weddings in my time but Ree and Jerry's, on Saturday, lands in the Top Ten of Fantastickness. It wasn't just that it was a beautiful day or a beautiful Mass. It wasn't just that everyone in the wedding party (including The Child) looked terrific. It wasn't just that I didn't lose it and weep all the way through my readings. It wasn't just that the reception was, in the words of Nick Lowe, "an unqualified success" with excellent food and drink, lots of dancing and plenty of karaoke. It wasn't just that the father of the bride (who is an asshat) behaved himself for once or that the bride and groom looked so radiant.

It was all those things and more.

But the best part was simply that we were witness to the vows of a couple who so completely and totally belong together, who model so beautifully what it is to truly love and appreciate the person he or she is with, for good and for ill.

I've known Ree for nearly half of my life. We've been through an awful lot together. I have seen her in other relationships where she was the one who did all the work. I've seen her not in a relationship and felt the pain of being alone it caused her. Ree is one of those people, so full of love, who is meant to share her life with another person. Not just give and give and give to everyone around her (which she does with a self-less generosity) but to be with someone who can give back to her and more, someone who gives in such a way that it gets past the walls she'd built around her heart. (Sometimes, you see, her giving has been a distraction from her loneliness).

The moment we met Jerry we knew the two of them were destined for greatness. We were right. Celebrating all of that with them on Saturday was sheer, unmitigated joy.