Intensive Care Union

My parents were married in a courthouse, but they eventually renewed their vows in a church.  It was a private occasion, just themselves and the minister who my father liked so much, it was almost enough to wrench him from Sunday morning soccer matches on the telly to attend his weekly sermon.  My parents are not a splashy couple, when they married in 1980, my mother wore a dress she pulled from her closet, and they had their reception in their apartment. Benjamin and I also married in a courthouse, and I wore a dress I pulled from my closet. Though I was in New Zealand, and they were in Canada, I felt connected to them: “This is how my parents got married”.

When they renewed their vows, my father wore his nicest jeans, took my mother out for a nice lunch, and then went to work the afternoon shift as custodian at…