Wedding of Daddy Lucas and Ruth

  Today was a happy day for Jonathan's father!

Not many men dare to get married just before they turn 87 years old!

But this one did.  

It was just a small, private wedding with family members and a few friends in the parsonage basement gathering room.

Granddaughter Rebecca lighting the candles. 

I thought Rebecca was beautiful. 

There was quite a boutonniere-pinning ceremony at the last minute.

Sam must have forgotten his comb!!!!! 

Since the other girls were involved in music, Crystal's grandpa asked if she would accept the honor of pinning on his boutonniere, and after pnning her own father's boutonniere, Crystal got to go back where her grandpa and the pastor were waiting

to try to pin their boutonnieres on, too! 

My turn, I guess! Dear Katherine! This wedding came together so nicely because of her quiet, helpful, creative help.  

Crystal's cousin Candace had driven from Missouri here with her, and Jonathan's dad had invited her to come to the wedding, too! So she helped with pinning corsages on the girls and videoing the wedding.

I caught a couple snaps of the girls practicing their wedding music in the hall. 

Last minute practice! Then the girls went out to the gathering room and began the prelude with "Blessed Assurance" and "As the Deer."

Then "Love Divine" was the cue for the men to get ready.

Pastor Kearney coming in...

... to the tune of "Canon in D."

Daddy Lucas about to pop his buttons!

Ruth lost her last sibling just a few months ago, but she had a cousin who lives in town and who was willing to come in with her and "give her away."

The vows.

 

The wedding ceremony was extremely simple and brief. Within minutes, they were pronounced man and wife.

And the kiss.

After which Jonathan's dad and Ruth had asked if Jonathan and I would sing an old love song called "Together."

After the loss of Mama and one and a half years of loneliness, the word "together" means so much to Daddy Lucas. 

It also means a lot to Ruth, who has never been married, and to whom it means so much to actually have a family to be part of now!

I love her already!

I remember how much the word "together" meant to me when Jonathan finally arrived in Kiev, Ukraine, and how bad I felt when he flew back to the States after our six week courtship, so that he could work and get ready to provide for a new wife.