After I Was Rendered Speechless

Since we landed here in Newfoundland, I have been moving at the speed of light and have hardly had a moment to pause!! We have been busy, Busy, BUSY: visiting family and friends, running wedding errands, meeting the caterer and the deejay, shopping, cooking and, of course, I have begun baking the wedding cakes. So far, I have 15 layers of delicious chocolate fudge cake stacked up in the deep freeze!! You see, so as not to render my family insane, we decided that I would bake a bunch of cakes in advance of the baking of the caking. This way, all of the women folk could focus on icing, decorating and baking one symbolic cake together, instead of baking a gazillion wedding cakes. In any event, I am seriously behind on posting!

Okay - so when last I left you, I was driving along with Tasha Faye, singing along to Fleetwood Mac, with a "Kiss Me" blindfold on.

We drove for awhile and then stopped. I was led out of the vehicle and greeted by Mariette who said, "Take my hands and let me guide you." I teetered over a slight incline and cautiously lurched forward. I had no idea where we were going as we inched along. Finally, Mariette said, "Okay. You can remove the blindfold."

So I did.

And what should I see before me but Aunt Dodie's backyard. It was filled with most of the wonderful women in my life. All of Mister Man's family were there: Merilee, Grayce, Janice, Andie and all of Mister Man's marvelous aunties: Dodie, Arlene, Kathy, Grayce and cousins Tracey and Toni. The running posse were there and Katie Jean (whom I've known since I was 14). Sarah and Donimo, AJ, Tasha Faye, Poot and Dooder, Susan and Diyan, Dorothy and Bunkle, Meghna and Lori and of course, Mariette, were all standing around the pool with giant grins upon their gorgeous faces.

"These are the goddesses", announced Mariette.

And I burst into tears. In fact, as I type this, I'm tearing up AGAIN!!! Oh my.

I was told that the goddesses would pass judgement on whether or not I was ready for marriage. And between bouts of laughter and sobs, I recounted my adventures. If I'd had my camera, I would have snapped an image of all of these amazing women, but you'll have to take my word for it when I say that it was singularly one of the most powerful personal moments I've experienced.

At the end of my tale, Mariette posed the question to the goddesses who all agreed that I was, indeed, ready to tie the knot.

"In celebration of this event", continued Mariette, "we've put together a cookbook for you. We asked everyone to bring a favourite recipe. Most people have made the recipe for the pot luck dinner we'll have when the men folk arrive in about an hour." At this point, a beautiful, big book was brought to me from a corner of the driveway where a giant craft table had been set up. Janice put the book in my hand and opened to the first page. I looked down and saw a recipe from the Mums. And of course, the waterworks began anew. As I flipped through the book, I saw that everyone had contributed recipes that were meaningful to them. And they'd decorated each page with notes, photos and messages. It was truly the most beautiful book I've ever seen in my life. When I get back to BC, I'll make a video and share it with you. It was my intention to make that video before I left, but we were simply too darn swamped.

At 7:30, the men arrived, including one smug Mister Man, and the feast began. It was a perfect, perfect night.......