Published on March 16th, 2008.
Viewed 69 times.
Story rank of 20.
We had waited many years to find one another. It was our wedding day. Never in our wildest dreams could we imagine this could happen.
RONALD
By
Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow
June 18th was our wedding day. Richard and I were driven to the Synagogue where our ceremony would take place. The setting was breathtaking. The Temple was situated on acres of green landscape. The Synagogue was designed by a Japanese architect. It was all white with a form and shape of simple elegance and grace.
Richard was 50 and I was 42 when we married. I chose to walk down the aisle hand in hand with my future husband at my side. That was the way I wanted to start our life together as partners.
I remember smiling at our guests as we walked toward the Rabbi. Everyone there meant so much to us. They smiled back at us with the recognition of how special a moment this was in our lives. We had waited a long time for this day. It was going to be perfect.
When the ceremony was over, the guests cornered us to extend their congratulations. My sisters somehow broke away from the crowd and walked into the room where tables were set up for our reception.
They gasped at the beauty of the peach colored roses and matching tablecloths and napkins. My sister Susan walked over to one of the tables and picked up one of the scripted napkins. She stared at the names and froze.
“Linda, come here,” she called out to my sister. “The napkins say Elynne and Ronald.” “Very funny,” Linda answered as she walked toward Susan and the napkin. Taking the napkin from Susan’s hands she looked at the names and screamed. “Hurry! Pick up all the napkins on every table!”
While my new husband Richard and I continued greeting our guests in another part of the Synagogue, my sisters worked as fast as they could to remove the disaster awaiting us.
They tried their hardest but missed a couple tables. As fate would have it this is where Richard’s friends sat down to eat. They looked at the napkins in total disbelief. One of his friends told us years later that she thought all the time she had known Richard she must not have known that his real name was Ronald.
On our honeymoon I could not resist every now and then calling for Ronald.
