Well, one side of it.
It’s always a good thing when one of your great uncles, who is in ill health and has been struggling for years, can stop smiling at your fiancee and says that she’s very pretty. I never really requested or demanded my family’s support with my choice in fiancee but it’s very good thing to receive.
So, yeah, my fiancee and I took a weekend trip to Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love and the city where my mom was raised. Most of my mother’s family still lives (or is buried) in that area. Norristown, Fort Washington and Upper Dublin is where her clan thrives. We were fed cheese steaks, pasta, zepplins and home made deliciousness. We met my uncle’s new dog, saw my cousin play in her last game of the JV softball season, and I discovered that my fiancee is extremely good at Gin Rummy. It was a perfect little trip.
I’ve never really sought approval from my family when it came to my fiancee. I didn’t go out looking for a girl who my family would fall in love with. Instead, I went looking for the girl who’d be right for me and if my family loved her too, great. If not, well, that would be their loss. Does that make me stubborn and pompous sometimes? Of course – there is a monster in a tux on this page after all. But I don’t like having external, and what I view as unnecessary, pressures when it comes to my personal life. And having high strung parents, when it comes to my fiancee and my wedding day, would just be something I wouldn’t put up with. But it is very nice when my family does like my fiancee and they really do. They couldn’t stop mentioning how pretty she was, how nice she was, and how outgoing she was. They would compare her to my sister-in-law in admiringly ways. And she won them over by being herself, didn’t need to pretend to be kind or considerate or anything like that. She spoke her mind, was kind as she always is, and I saw how well she fits into my extended family. That was nice to see.
My great uncle Tony, at a Mother’s Day brunch that my uncle, aunt, cousins, and mom were at, after saying that my fiancee was pretty, then wondered who were left to get married. My cousins are 15 and 13 and we all looked at them. My fiancee mentioned her younger cousins who are available. For a minute there, my uncle Mike took my fiancee seriously. I could see the look of horror about BOYS appear on his face for a minute. But then my fiancee mentioned they were in Florida and the look on his face mellowed. If I end up with daughters, at least I know that look, that specific look, runs in the family.