Story Time

November 19, 1987, Don and I applied for a marriage licence.

Don, thought it would be neat to get married on our birthday, since we share a birthday. (November 21). I, however, did NOT want to get married on our birthday, and did not want to get married in November, since my first wedding had taken place in November, I thought that would be ... uncouth.

So, he almost had me talked into it, so we got the license. We were still looking for wedding chapels, and talking to the pastor of the church where Don was attending. We, had assumed, falsely, (and found out AFTER we got the license ...) that in Tulsa Town, there is (or at least was) no such thing as Justice of the Peace ..which was going to be our last resort.

I talked him into waiting till December. But our license was only good for 2 weeks AFTER we got it, so we'd have to get married on the first, second or third. We'd talked to his pastor, who agreed to do it. We had our best man and matron of honor lined up.

Then, on Monday, November 30th, we got a call, the pastor was backing out. We got 2 stories, we never figured out which was the real story ...it really doesn't matter ..one was that he was going out of town on an emergency. The other was this "besides, so and so is complaining that Peggikaye's been married before" (it was a woman whom I'd gone to church with before when I was married before. She also knew the whole story of me being left after 4 months, and it should have been annulled, not divorce! Granted, she didn't know WHY I was left, but she was aware that legally, we qualified for an annulment) So, they were this high donation to the church, high powered couple. We were this low income ... nothing ..and we think he just gave into pressure. That, is neither here, nor there other than, that is how we came to get to being married where we did.

So, Monday night, we've got just till Thursday to find where we can get married. We start to call ..chapels were WAY out of our budget ... we finally found one.
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Most people don't realize they can do weddings. I never knew that they did. Never have heard of anyone else getting married there either.

The Salvation Army Chapel.

So, we're supposed to meet our Best Man and Matron of Honor at 2pm on December 2nd at the Salvation Army in down town Tulsa.

Every girls dream.

When we left, we called our friends, and they were on their way. So, we get there, and the chaplain tells us that our matron of honor needs us to call. We were very confused ...but we called.

The best man had fallen on the ice on the way out to the car, and slipped a disc in his back. (he wound up being laid up for over 2 months!)

We, had no guests coming, there were no alternatives for witnesses. Now what? We had one day till the license expired.

The chaplain said that there were always 3 people on site at all times, they could be the witnesses, but first, he wanted to do some 'pre marital counseling'.

OK.

So, after about 45 minutes, he calls in the witnesses.

One guy was HUGELY obese ... could barely walk. He was homeless, but volunteered at the center and used their shelters.
The other guy, extremely thin, and was missing his right arm. A war vet, homeless, who also lived at the shelter and volunteered at the shelter.

These, were our witnesses. They stood beside us. They stood straight, and they smiled through the whole ceremony. You'd have thought, that we'd been life long friends. They knew, they were being asked to do something that was normally an honor bestowed on people close to someone's heart. They took their job of being witnesses to our marriage quite seriously!

We finished the ceremony, they signed their names ..we signed ...the minister signed ..and we all gave each other handshakes and hugs ...and Don and I walked out the door. Mr. & Mrs. Donald Eagler.



Married in a Salvation Army Chapel.

Don said "Wow! It's for real!"
I said "Who was my maid of honor?"

Twenty years later ... we're still married. I keep thinking of the show Bridezilla (although, not having cable, I've never seen an episode) and thinking how much emphasis they put ... and how little we had ..and yet ... the ceremony worked ... just as well (maybe better?)

So, on December 2, 2007 ... we're going to renew our vows. With all we've been through, the better and the worse ... the house, the sick kids, the health issues and the struggles in our marriage, we can't think of anything better to do.

This time ..we'll have a wedding. A little closer to the one that this girl ... and this girl dreamed about ...