Mother of the Bride

My dear friend Resurreccion Purisima Sacdalan, known to everyone as Rose, with her mother Hermingilda Purisima at the wedding of Rose’s daughter Michelle (my god-daughter) in Simsbury, CT on April 23rd.

At the multi-cultural ceremony (the groom Abrar is Muslim and Michelle’s family are Catholic), Rose shows off her henna tattoo.

Rose and her husband Lorenzo. Rose and I struck up a great friendship from the day she began working with me at the (now defunct) Covenant Insurance Company in Hartford, Connecticut. She had petitioned to bring Lorenzo here from the Philippines and the process dragged on; finally a letter from senator Chris Dodd helped seal the deal. I threw a party for Lorenzo when he arrived in the USA and every single person from my office showed up.

Would you believe I didn’t get a single photo of the bride and groom from this wedding?  But here (above) is the bride’s twin sister, Melissa, as matron-of-honor.

The ceremony was held at the chapel of the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut. After a reading from the Koran, there was a lovely ritual in which a veil was placed over the bridal couple; and later the mothers of the bride and groom each lit a candle from which the couple jointly lit a single candle symbolizing the unity of their two families.The groom’s mother, a strikingly attractive woman in a traditional Indian gown, performed a ceremonial blessing. Then the actual vows were read by a Justice of the Peace.

The ceremony began with an orchestral setting of the old Cat Stevens ‘hymn’ MORNING HAS BROKEN; later music of Pachelbel and Chopin was performed. 

We adjourned to The Farmington Club where food from both the Indian and Filipino cultures was served buffet-style…

…before the cake was cut.

Two of my former co-workers from the insurance company, Emily Friend and Chita Taylor. I worked with these young ladies for years and we had so much fun together despite all basically hating the job of handling insurance claims.

Chita and Rose with someone I don’t know in the middle.

It wasn’t until we were leaving that I finally got to embrace my god-daughter – whom I hadn’t seen for nearly twenty years – and to meet her husband Abrar. Someone snapped a ‘god-parents’ photo; I hope Rose remembers to send me a copy! 

It rained heavily during most of the day of the ceremony; that’s supposed to mean good luck for the wedded couple.

The next morning the sun started breaking thru, the temperature rose and the world seemed to blossom. This seemed like an excellent omen for a happy marriage.