The view from Mount Arrowsmith was spectacular on that sunny Wednesday afternoon. The six of us had driven to the end of a dusty MacMillan Bloedel logging road before trekking up a rugged hillside to the place that Terry and I had chosen a few days earlier.
Terry carried the loaf of bread she had baked, I had a bottle of red wine. Mark, the oldest in the merry band, came with his leather bound book and cup. Ann and Sharon picked flowers along the climb and Mike of Comox gathered some fallen pine branches. Once up at the grassy lookout, it was easy work to pile the branches over twin tree trunks and create a makeshift table.
Mark’s friend Zach offered his services a month earlier but we told him we had some planning to do. First there was a bus trip San Francisco where we bought some special clothes, then a visit to that creative guy in downtown Vancouver and of course, we needed to decide on the songs and readings.
Mark said we’d better get started…everything was ready.
And then, time stood still and a magical transformation occurred.
The pine table became an altar, Father Mark read from his Bible, the bread was blessed and broken, the wine was poured into the chalice, songs were sung and the gold rings that Terry and I had designed in Gastown were exchanged….and…we were married at the top of the world.
Happy 40th Anniversary Terry.
AML
Michael
Wow!
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