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| Bill and I taking wedding vows four years ago today! |
Hard to believe that four years has passed already since our official marriage four years ago!
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| Forty-nine years is a long time to wait, finally we get married. |
Yes, four years ago Bill and I were officially married at the Georgetown, Delaware Sussex County Courthouse.
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| Bill and me outside the Sussex County Courthouse after getting married |
We chose that date, July 3rd, because on that date we met forty-nine years ago. Coincidentally, July 1st was the first day same sex marriages were legal in Delaware.
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| Our witnesses, our good friends Judy and Jack Dawson |
No family attended our wedding ceremony. Bill's family cut him off about a year before I met him after they discovered he was gay. Bill has seen none of his family since then. The break occurred when Bill was at his mother's funeral and one of his sister confronted him with 'We know about you!' This was back in the Dark Ages when being identified as gay labeled one as sick and 'less than'. Also, Bill's family is from the South (Georgia). Unfortunately many in the South still have the same opinion of gay people. I have experienced this first hand when researching my family tree (my father was from North Carolina) and was discounted and banned from contact with different family members.
My family never approved of my relationship with Bill but 'accepted' it as long as our gayness wasn't mentioned. 'Don't ask, don't tell.' Well, by getting publicly married we broke that unwritten rule in my family and I haven't heard from my family since. Apparently Bill was all right as long as he was my 'friend' but when we came out publicly it was too much for them to accept. Of course I am saddened by the estrangement of my two brothers and their families but you know folks, I live my life and they live theirs. I can't and will not live my life they way they want me too. Accept me (and Bill) as I am or not at all.
That said, and I apologize for the negativity of this post, Bill and I are very happy. Meeting and living with Bill the past fifty-three years of my life is the best thing in my life. I would not be where I am today if not for Bill.
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| Bill taking charge again |
On to sixty years now!
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| I hope we have many more years together |
