My daughter Sarah officiated at the wedding of my niece Melissa. The gazebo under which Mel, as we call her, and Rich Degrassi took their vows was on the water in Oakdale, NY, a theme Sarah used in her 'sermon.' A procession of family members, including my sister Donna, the mother of the bride, strolled up the center aisle while dozens of people were snapping photos.
The couple read their vows to one another and then Sarah asked Rich to stomp on a napkin-wrapped glass in the Jewish tradition to symbolize the shattering of one's single life and the joining together in a heavenly union.
I was sipping on a glass of water and feeling the heat of the sun beam down. It had been raining all day except for now when the sun came out as if blessing the couple.
I wondered how the Degrassi family felt about their son marrying a Hispanic woman who is also part Jewish. Isn't it something how waves of immigrants arrive and are looked down upon by those already here until they establish themselves in the business world. That is certainly something Melissa's Ecuadorean family did par excellence.
Her grandmother Maria was a hard-working cleaning lady for rich people. With no husband, she managed to send her 2 sons to school and they both became educators - principals or asst. principals - of NY city schools.
They fared very well in America. Melissa herself became a dentist. As a bride, she looked spectacular in a long white gown as she marched down the white carpet on the arm of her father Roberto Hernando Cartagena, who subsequently remarried a woman from El Salvador.
Fun-loving people. Now I've gotta go hang up my wedding clothes. They're still on the chair where I left them.
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