Today marks our 43rd Anniversary. Who woulda' thunk it? The kid who at 25 vowed he would be a perpetual bachelor!That all changed in 1965 when I met my beautiful wife Chela in Mexico City when my mom and I had gone there to pay a "Manda" (vow) to visit the Basilica of the Virgen of Guadalupe which she had made while I was off in Europe in the U.S. Army.
She had made the promise that the two of us would make a pilgrimage there in thanksgiving for my safe return from Europe. I fought her all the way because I really didn't believe in all that stuff, and I had much more important things to do like partying, carousing, and catching up on a 3-year absence from the Real World. However, once there I decided to visit an old college buddy of mine.
Ironically, Pepe had married and had moved to San Miguel de Allende but the family graciously received me, along with Pepe's five sisters. One stood out. Our eyes met, and the rest is history. Needless to say I asked my Mom to extend our stay, and three days later I asked Chela to marry me. We married a year later in a small but beautiful cathedral not far from her home.
She had made the promise that the two of us would make a pilgrimage there in thanksgiving for my safe return from Europe. I fought her all the way because I really didn't believe in all that stuff, and I had much more important things to do like partying, carousing, and catching up on a 3-year absence from the Real World. However, once there I decided to visit an old college buddy of mine.
Ironically, Pepe had married and had moved to San Miguel de Allende but the family graciously received me, along with Pepe's five sisters. One stood out. Our eyes met, and the rest is history. Needless to say I asked my Mom to extend our stay, and three days later I asked Chela to marry me. We married a year later in a small but beautiful cathedral not far from her home.
My mom, of course, attributed all of this to the Virgen: "Gracias, Virgen de Guadalupe por este milagro!! For years she had prayed to God and all the saints to find "a good Mexican woman" for me, her last and Prodigal son. "Mexican women know how to take care of their men", she said. And she was absolutely right.
1 comment:
CONGRATULATIONS!
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