The Wedding of this Century

I've already shared about the WOC from the 1900s. This wedding was daughter Caroline marrying Bill. Last October 10th, we had a celebration here in the bluegrass and it was a weekend to remember.

Caroline did an amazing job of planning. We had a full, well organized and fun week with family and friends. Thursday was an all day tailgate at Keeneland. Cousin Tish did us proud with the food and the spot. It was a perfect day and we taught several out of town folks how to bet (or how to give money to the track). The only downside came the next morning when Bill asked if he could borrow the car to take groomsmen to Woodford Reserve. I said "Sure". He came back shortly asking where the car was. We looked around but couldn't find the car. Turns out we had taken 7 cars to the track, but only brought 6 back. Luckily, folks end up leaving cars parked in the grass overnight, and it was there for us to retrieve it.

Friday was a glorious rehearsal dinner, hosted by Bill's family. Special props to machatenista Deaver for all of her hard work. The weather held up - just warm enough and no substantial rain.

The wedding was beautiful. Preacher Mark was poignant, funny and very meaningful.

Leading up to the wedding, Caroline asked me if I still had my extra wedding ring. Back in the late nineties, right after winter moved to spring, I lost my gold band from 1983. We bought another, and I started wearing that one. Then when the seasons shifted again, I switched back to winter work shoes and found my wedding ring in that pair in the closet. Life was more complicated when I had to go to a gym to work out. So look closely at the picture, and you'll see 1983 in the ring Bill is wearing

The flowers were done by Anna at Bellaire Blooms. Locally grown by the daughter of TGP's medical partner

Kim had a friend who had a cool car for the get-away.

At clean up time on Sunday, we were retrieving the left-over alcohol from the venue. Cousin Tish was helping. I had been enjoying a dinner party game for a couple of years with two bottles of single barrel Four Roses that were bottled for Wine and Market. Same mash bill, same age (10 years 4 months when bottled), same rick house, but different parts of the rick house. One high and toward the outside, one low on the inside. They tasted like two entirely different liquors. While unloading, I noticed a stricken look on Tish's face. She had combined the two bottles to make space in the liquor cabinet, because the labels looked the same. We all got a good laugh out of it, and I had a little bit of a unique blended bourbon.

We're thrilled to have Bill in our family, as well as all of our other new relatives. It really was the wedding of the century.

Enjoy the pictures

The Reveal

Jordan and Kate

Kate and Lucy

MS Walk 2016

If you are in a hurry, here is the donation link.

The Lexington MS walk is coming up soon, on Saturday April 9th.  If you're in town and can join me at Masterson Station, please join my team. If you want to know more about the walk, or the MS Society, we will be having a kickoff gathering for the walk on Saturday March 12th (who said there is no such thing as a free lunch!). We look forward to another successful event raising money for this very important cause.  We are much more involved with the KY chapter for the National MS society this year; I'm on the board and am the chair of the local walk. The MS Society does great work and we're always thrilled when our friends can help.

We've been doing the walk for a long time.  You can read about Mary Anne's progress, and why the advances that this walk funds are important to us in these earlier posts:

MS Walk 2009

MS Walk 2010

MS Walk 2013
MS Walk 2014
MS Walk 2015

There were many more walks than that, but I didn't start writing until fall of 2008.

The annual health update is basically the same as last year's update. The MS news remains steady, which is positive. Mary Anne's energy level is good, and we've had another year without any exacerbations.  Basically, with this disease, no news is good news..

We appreciate your help in the past, and are always grateful when any of you can contribute again.

Donate to the MS walk on Mary Anne's behalf

MA was moving around well enough this summer to take part in the annual silly string battle at the beach

Milt Patton 1937-2015

My friend Kim's dad passed away the day after Thanksgiving. Here is his obituary. He was with Kim and Sarah and they had enjoyed the feasting together on Thursday.

The whole Patton family circa 1971

Known to some of us that loved him by his Mary Anne given Shaker name, Irascible, Milt was a Father and Grandfather, a genealogist, and just generally an interesting guy. He stopped by the house frequently, proud to show off what his boy had designed to anyone visiting from out of town. He took long road trips to explore whatever historic themes were of interest to him at that time, sometimes taking a grandchild along. He ran for Congress in the late 80's. We took Eleanor to a fund raiser and he got a photo op holding the baby. Wish I had a picture of that.

Milt came with us to encampment at Lake Muscoka. He loved educating us on the history of the logo in the clock on the wall.

Eben & Milt

The memorial service will be held at Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, Kentucky-Japan Friendship Garden, Georgetown, KY on Dec. 12, 2015, at 1:30 p.m.

The last of the siblings

Dorcas Noel Hollingsworth Wiedemann passed away on Thanksgiving Day, November 26th at 88 years old. Here is her obituary. She joins husband Jefferson, her four brothers (including TGP), and her parents Denzil & Polly.

Although Alzheimer's disease took away her ability to recognize even family, nothing ever took away her smile.

Her love of horses was highly influential in the family move to the Bluegrass, and the Hollingsworth clan has been here ever since.

She baked bread in the kitchen at the Holly's, and my brother Dunn always said how much he liked it because she put fresh on it.

We will always miss Aunt Dorcas

Hall Dorcas Donn Kent Vertrees

Dorcas Denzil Kent at the track

Dorcas with her prize for horsemanhip

1935

The Aunt Hill: Dorcas, Leslie, Betty, Alice

Mark, Britt, Randal

Times Picyune Newspaper in college

The Gracious Way

Friend Kim and I finished the walkway to the driveway over Memorial day weekend, and MA and I found a grindstone on an antique jaunt to Shelbyville in June.  We had thought nephew Max was going to get to help with the construction project, but we had more fun things to do with him.

So, on a beautiful Saturday, I took on finishing the route from driveway to front door.  Brother Dunn had given me extensive directions while we were at the beach together, so I knew what I needed to do.

Also, note the handrails on the stairs.  There were over a year in getting here, but we love them.

The obligatory selfie

Grandmother calls it "The Gracious Way".  We're just glad to have folks easily able to get into the house.

Come see us out at the creek.