Kat called her parents first. We were somewhat nervous but very happy. I believe Kat’s mom answered the phone so Kat told her first. I was told that Dan, her father, cried, What is it like to hear from your first daughter, your beautiful Irish Catholic daughter, that she had eloped and married a Jew? When they were first told it must have been difficult, even shocking. I think mom heard the joy in Kat’s voice. Their response was magnanimous and loving to both Kat and I. Perhaps there would be tears after the call but their first response to me was welcoming. There was not one second of ‘did you know what you are doing?” or “ what did you do?” Mom, Kathleen, spoke to me and told me that she knew if there would ever be a problem in our family, Kat’s and mine, it would be Kat’s fault.
Then I called my parents and my mom answered the phone. The conversation was briefer. I told my mom: 1. I wouldn’t be coming home for dinner. 2. Kat and I had gotten married. Again, what is it like to have your first son, admired and loved, tell you that he, a Jew, had just eloped and married this Irish Catholic girl? The same girl you had met about two months ago when she didn’t make a very good impression on you. My mom was not as magnanimous as Kat’s family but there were no negative remarks. I told her what our plans were and when she could expect to hear from us again. She was probably shocked and disappointed but she kept it to herself. She wished us well and the hard task of telling our parents was over.
After we finished the calls and we were lying in bed I did something I was to do for the rest of our lives together. I hovered over Kat and looked straight down at her face, ………..…….that beautiful, beautiful face. It wasn’t just the physical beauty I saw, her character always shone through for me. I would tell her how beautiful she was to me and she would give me that wonderful, self-deprecating, embarrassed smile. I know Kat never got tired of me saying that to her and I never got tired of saying that to her. That smile was enough reason for me to do that over and over again, throughout the years, the decades. We both had a feeling that was full of joy and contentment, a feeling that never left us. My cousin Steve recalled to me that a very young Kat said she would make a life by making do with what she had. She would be happy with a $10 dress. Whatever was going on in our lives, we had the greatest gift, we had each other. Very little else mattered.
Tomorrow morning, on Thanksgiving, we would leave for our honeymoon at the Provincetown Inn in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
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