56 years ago yesterday, my mother wore candlelight satin and a softly draped lace collar. The bridesmaids, including my mother’s younger sister, wore dark green velvet. My mother carried an elegant bouquet of creamy poinsettias and my father wore a formal dark grey suit. They were married at a small Methodist church in New Jersey and honeymooned at Split Rock Lodge in the Poconos.

They had both done their undergraduate work in education at Trenton State Teacher’s College (now The College of New Jersey) and their masters at Rutgers. My father had served in World War II in the Army Air Corps and flew as a navigator out of a base in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. My mother taught at Cadwalader Elementary School in Trenton, New Jersey and my father was first a teacher at Arthur Reed Elementary School, then its principal, and ultimately principal of Gilmore J. Fisher Junior High School in Ewing Township. Happy Anniversary, dearly departed parental units.