Change my name?
My radiation was scheduled to start the middle of September, which was a few weeks away. Things were quiet (at least compared to the previous months). No flurry of doctor appointments, no procedures or tests, we had already done the preliminaries for the treatments, toured the radiation area, met my team, asked all our questions. So yea, quiet. It was a nice break. It was a Wednesday evening; we had finished dinner and weren’t doing much of anything. Out of the blue Terry wanted to go to Lynnie Lou’s for ice cream. Lynnie Lou’s? I was a little surprised. Ice cream at Lynnie Lou’s was a Sunday evening thing. I mean it had been a family tradition from back when his kids were growing up. I had had a long day and didn’t feel like going anywhere. He seemed disappointed. The next evening I had to run over to the veterinarian to pick up some meds for one of the dogs. “Oh, can we go to Lynnie Lou’s for some ice cream?” he asked. Lynnie Lou’s again? “Sure, I guess we can do that” I replied. So we loaded into the car and headed out. The veterinarian and Lynnie Lou’s were sort of in the same direction…sort of-kinda. First stop was the veterinarian. It was mostly back roads over to Lynnie Lou’s. Anyone who knows my husband or has gone anywhere with him knows there is never a direct route between 2 points. There is always a “round about” way to get there. While we were driving we noticed bright lights in what looked like an area of fields. Well, this warranted investigating. So, off we go to find these lights and see what’s up. In the country, on back roads, in the dark it’d not easy to find anything, including a field of lights. After this turn and that turn and a couple of “Oh, wait-let’s go this ways”, we eventually found it and drove up the driveway. Turned out to a music festival that went through the weekend. People were wandering around, dancing in front of the stage and even camping out for the weekend. Kind of like our own mini Woodstock. Well, that mystery was solved…..on to the ice cream.
We finally made it there (just before closing). We got our ice cream and went out to sit at one of the tables. My husband is generally a laid back person, but tonight he was a ball of nervous energy. He had been since we decided to go to Lynnie Lou’s. We were sitting eating our ice cream and talking about nothing specific. Out of nowhere he asks, “So, what would you think about changing your name?” Ummmmm…..wait-what? “Changing my name? Why would I change my name? What would I change it to?” He very sheepishly (yes, sheepishly) looked down at his ice cream than back up at me and said, “I was thinking maybe you could change it to Mott.” Long pause, mind scattered, processing, processing and then, CLICK! “Wait, is this the Terry Mott way of asking me to marry you?” I asked. “Well (more sheepish looks), yea” he replied.
We had never really talked about getting married. I knew we would eventually and told him that, but it just wasn’t a thing. “Where is this coming from? Why now?” I asked. He replied, “I should have done this a long time ago….” Ok, take some breaths, let things settle in. “So, do you want to get married?” he asked. “Of course I do.” I replied, “I knew we’d get married someday.” I definitely did not see this coming, I had no idea he was thinking about it.
He looks down at his ice cream again and back up at me (you guessed it, uh oh, that sheepish look again). He said, “I was hoping we could do it while Andi (his daughter) is home.” Processing, processing, CLICK….”Wait, that’s in 2 weeks!” I exclaim. “You want me to pull together a wedding in 2 weeks?” He smiled and replied, “I was thinking we could just have the kids and a Justice of the Peace. Simple.” Ok, that made sense. It couldn’t get much easier than that. We finished our ice cream and headed for home.
Terry called his daughter the next day. In his “round about” way of doing things he asked Andi, “So what do you think about having another Mott in the family?” There was a long pause and Andi asked, “Is Brenda pregnant?” “No!” Terry replied. “Oh, are we getting another puppy?” Andi asked. “No”, Terry told her, “we’re getting married….” I guess that was acceptable although I think she was really hoping for another puppy. Terry slightly changed his approach when he told his son Darryl. Apparently it was a surprise to Darryl as well. “Is Brenda OK? Did something change? Is something wrong?” was Darryl’s response. Both the kids knew I had breast cancer so I guess that’s where Darryl’s concern came from. Terry assured him everything was ok. It still makes me chuckle thinking about it. Andi thought I was pregnant and Darryl thought I was dying. At least neither of them was against us getting married…….
So two weeks to plan a simple wedding. Just the four of us and a Justice of the Peace.
Easy Peasy. No problem…… Yea right, like it ever really goes that way.