One Down, Two To Go

[BasketBaller]

As promised (threatened?) I will give a rundown on the festivities as the first of my sons was married two weeks ago, with another engaged and the third playing the field. 

For those who hadn't been around, I am a widower with three boys who came late to acknowledging any male/male attraction, and I struggled with coming out later in life than some do. My oldest now works on Capitol Hill, and my younger two are twins, one of whom is in the Navy and the other of whom lives in Chicago after getting his degree from DePaul-- thus their nicknames in this chronicle.

Navy Twin and his fiancee had been together since high school, and they survived his years at the Naval Academy and long separation to reach this point. It was a beautiful, simple wedding, they are both no-nonsense people with little patience for anything too fancy. That mean it was not too expensive, which was nice since I was hosting the rehearsal dinner. They got married in the Chapel at the Academy, and we had the dinner the evening before at the Officers' Club, where my dad is a member. My parents and siblings were there, and my late wife's family likewise. Some of you may remember that my brother-in-law, who came out as gay when he was young, was the first person I confided in. He had eased the way with his side of the family, and they've been nothing but supportive, perhaps because the boys have been. Similarly my son's fiancee's family-- a couple of them didn't say much but I didn't really know them, so that may have been all it was. As I said in an earlier post, I don't think my daughter-in-law to be would have put up with any attitude about it. The evening was pretty relaxed overall.

Naturally everyone was very conscious of who was missing-- the boys' mom. We all talked about her and told the bride's family stories, and if I wasn't already puzzling them, that must have done it, since so much of the talk was about what a wonderful marriage we had, which is true.

I stayed up late back at the hotel talking to the boys about nothing in particular, but we did bring up the last time we all stayed in an Annapolis hotel, when we dropped Navy Twin off for plebe summer. You may remember the last thing he murmured to me before marching in to start the summer, "Be happy." Everyone here, me included, wondered if that meant he had suspected what was going on with me. But after I came out to them, I asked him if he remembered saying that, and he said he did. I asked him why, and blunt as ever, he said, "Because I didn't think you were very happy then."  Smart kid. That was the trip where DePaul Twin, his brother, quietly cried all the way back to DC.

More to come, the wedding, and everybody meets my "friend."

Edited November 4, 2022 by BasketBaller

[liubit]

Thank you for the “teaser update” 🤭, @BasketBaller . Looking forward to the “real stuff”, please don’t keep us hanging. You are great.