Session 1 was Friday night from 7:30 to 9:30pm, at Our Lady of Miraculous Medal in Ridgewood. It was like a Mass without the Eucharist. An elderly couple did the readings and Fr. Anthony spoke. He was very engaging and warm and I enjoyed his words of wisdom. The night ended earlier than planned. They had us writing out love letters, which we wouldn't show one another until the next day.
Session 2 was the following morning, at 9AM with a 5PM end time. Luckily, it really wasn't that long. I think by 2:45 we were finished. I say luckily because 8 hours is a long time to sit and listen to talks, however engaging they are. The day was led by the elderly couple from the night before, Ernie and Gabby. I believe they said they have been married 63 years! So they spoke from their own experience and whatnot. Every so often between topics, the couples would split up. Boys on one side and girls on the other. We would fill out these activities from this workbook:
I don't know if there was anything from the activities that we learned about each other that we didn't already know. In fact, based on some of his answers, he knows me a little too well, lol. But some of them really did make me laugh. One activity had us checking off how we think about ourselves (are we practical or a dreamer) and how we think of the other person (are they organized or disorganized....we both agreed I am somewhere in the middle while he is "somewhat" organized.) What I liked about these activities is that it had us talking about things that don't get talked about on a daily basis.
By the end of all the talks, they had us all stand up and say a prayer holding our partners hand. Of course with Jonathan, he came across the words "step by step" in the prayer and broke out in song (somewhat quietly) singing the "Step by Step" theme song. That was pretty entertaining :-P
The final thing was to receive our certificate that we completed the weekend, as well as a small religious medal to go with it.
Whoo hoo! One step closer to being married.
Both Jonathan and I agreed that Gabby reminded us of our paternal grandmothers in the way they spoke. What made the timing funny was that May 3rd marked five years since Jonathan's Grandma Esther passed. It is nice to feel her presence during this time. Even though I only got to know her for almost 10 months, she really embraced me as her own. I was cleaning out things in the last week or so and found a Christmas card from 2008, where she signed it "I love you! Grandma Esther" That's just the kind of woman she was: loving and kind and always looking at the bright side.
April was a quiet month overall, which was why there were no posts. We hit the 6 month mark, which was nice, since that means it's officially halfway to go! Looking forward to crossing more things off the list. Until next time!
