October 8 51+ years ago

Thursday:  I was surfing around on Facebook the other day and ran into this picture. I was truly excited to be able to copy and save it for my own memory's sake. 

The bride is a dear friend from college, Shirley. She and Dan got married in August 1975, and I was in the wedding. Can you find me? I had ZERO pictures of this occasion and I was always sad and regretful about that fact. I'm so glad to have this photo! See the pretty bridesmaids dresses? The day AFTER the wedding, I was touching it up with an iron and ironed a huge hole right in the front of the dress. Guess who never wore the dress ever again. Sad.

Shirley grew up in Tonawanda, New York (a suburb of Buffalo) and that's where she got married as well. Shirley is a year older than me and we met my freshman year and immediately connected. My roommate, Robbie, Shirley, and I all used to hang out together. Shirley and Robbie were in singing groups together, and they were also on the Homecoming court my sophomore year, with Shirley being crowned queen! It's good for me to remember the good things about those years, even though there were so many sad things going on in my personal life. Shirley was a real gift to me. We are rather out of touch, and have been for years now. Shirley and Dan moved to California (I think Dan had a ministry opportunity), but in their retirement, I believe they now live in N. Carolina. I haven't seen her face to face since her little Jeremy was about a year old--she came to Grand Rapids to visit me and stayed with Jim and I for a few days ... so long ago!