Sunday, September 21, 2003
The History-Making Wedding
Just thought folks would be interested in my sister’s same-sex wedding, as they’re calling it, in Toronto. We expected it to be a 5-minute bureaucratic affair, but it took 15 minutes and was really lovely. The person presiding was of a category called a “wedding officiant,” who turned out to be a Korean woman, maybe 45, with the loveliest sensibilities imaginable. The ceremony was completely her creation (she refused to let the wedding couple see it, but she assured them that she was going to say “spouse” instead of “wife” and “husband”), she quoted George Eliot, she quoted a native American wedding prayer, she quoted a Celtic wedding blessing, she mentioned in passing that they had been together 25 years, it was all quite perfect and I wept throughout.
My sister’s two children and daughter-in-law were present, my brother lives here with his wife and daughter (he and my sister-in-law were the official witnesses and had to sign documents before and after the ceremony), two of my sister’s spouse’s friends came because she has no family. From City Hall we went to the wedding couple’s hotel room for champagne (four bottles kept cold in a cooler with ice) with cheese and crackers, then we went out to a Peruvian restaurant.
Toronto is a lovely place, where I’ve visited two museums, two markets, and the lake—unfortunately it’s a two or three thousand kilometers too far north. Tomorrow I leave before dawn for el DF and Tuesday a little later for Havana.
My sister’s two children and daughter-in-law were present, my brother lives here with his wife and daughter (he and my sister-in-law were the official witnesses and had to sign documents before and after the ceremony), two of my sister’s spouse’s friends came because she has no family. From City Hall we went to the wedding couple’s hotel room for champagne (four bottles kept cold in a cooler with ice) with cheese and crackers, then we went out to a Peruvian restaurant.
Toronto is a lovely place, where I’ve visited two museums, two markets, and the lake—unfortunately it’s a two or three thousand kilometers too far north. Tomorrow I leave before dawn for el DF and Tuesday a little later for Havana.
