As I stood at the front of the church, I was struck--hard--by the singularly beautiful moment of Brooke coming down the aisle.
"Oh my god," I said, and then I was shuddering with sobs I fought to force back.
It wasn't sadness. It wasn't the loneliness I expect to feel when my best friend and I are parted by the sea. It wasn't mourning at all.
It was amazement. It was bliss. It was my primal response to ultimate beauty.
The organ music surged through me as one of the most amazing women I've ever known floated up to the altar. Dorothy rubbed my back to calm me as I gasped for air, blinking back tears of joy.
We've been married four years, but I still learn new things about him all the time.
Today I learned that Sean Meadows can give one hell of a speech.
I guess I assumed that because I'm terrible at giving speeches, Sean would be too--that it was just part of our personalities. Even now, I sometimes forget that we are not the same person.
"It's your turn," David said. Sean forced his way through the pain of his rental shoes up to the front of the room, where Brooke and David stood with champagne glasses in front of their wedding cake.
"When David turned 30, he told me he wanted to be with someone," Sean said. "He said he was lonely and unhappy.
"As his friend, I of course had to tell him the truth. 'You're not going to get anywhere on that talking to me every night.'"
Sean paused while everyone laughed. Then, "I was wrong," he said.
"Brooke and David hadn't met yet, but one day I said, 'Do you think David and Brooke...?' And Heather said, 'No.'" More laughter.
"It didn't happen until right after Heather and I had a personal tragedy. David came to visit and they finally met.
"They didn't waste any time."
Sean's speech was especially good because it complemented David's speech quite well. I don't know if they planned that or not. David mentioned briefly how it happened and spent most of his time (rightly) on his relationship with Brooke; that meant Sean was able to go back and fill in the gaps.
What really impressed me was the fact that Sean didn't "write" his speech. He thought about what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it, and then he went up there with no notes and just told it all conversationally. He never seemed to fumble or forget what he wanted to say, and he paused at just the right times.
There were a couple times when I wasn't sure if the people in the back could hear him, but that is the only problem I can think of.
I love hearing good public speakers. I never imagined that I'd married one!
(Note: Because he didn't write his speech out, I had to write it from memory. I'm sure I got the wording wrong here and there. I wish I had managed to get it recorded with my camera, but unfortunately I had to change batteries right when Sean went up to talk ;P)
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