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LA BODA GUATEMALTECA 14/2/2004 |
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Espe broke up laughing when the priest told Gregg to look at her, not him. |
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Receiving a blessing at the end of the Mass. |
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Third time's the charm! Yes, we really DID get married a third time. This time, it was on Valentine's Day 2004, in the living room of Esperanza's family in Guatemala. It seems that there was just a little bit of miscommunication that day. Because nobody in Espe's family had been able to be with us for either our 2002 or our 2003 weddings, we asked if a priest could come to the house that evening to give us a blessing. When the priest, a Capuchin Franciscan missionary from Poland, roared up on his motorcycle that evening, he had packed his Mass kit along. The family hastily arranged an altar from a table, and the padre celebrated Mass for all of us. With his heavy Polish accent I had one heck of a time understanding the Padre's Spanish. And when I tried lip-reading during the recitation of the vows, the Padre looked me right in the eye and told me to look at Esperanza, and not at him. Everyone broke out laughing, and I did just fine reciting the vows from memory. After all, I had recited them in Spanish at our wedding at St. Patrick's just two months before. --- Gregg Smith |