My Story 25

May 20 1960 was coming closer, the date of our wedding. That was exactly 30 days after Trudy's arrival in Canada. In those days Immigration was sped up if you committed yourself to marriage within 30 days. Anything to cut the red tape, right? Anyways, it would not make sense to have a beautiful young lady waiting in the wings, and then to withhold the commitment of Marriage. So, May 20 it is. The Friday before the long weekend.

You must understand that I was still paying for my car, and for my trip to Holland. I also had to pay part of the airfare for Trudy, and I had to pay for the transport of a crate containing her possessions, that was being shipped by boat. I was maxed out on my line of credit! That meant no honeymoon, no expensive ring, no expensive party. And all of that was OK with Trudy. We were married the Low Budget Way in the home of Rev. Franklin. He, and his sweet wife made it as pleasant as they could. My brother Ben and his wife Ina were our witnesses. Ben and Ina were married just recently in Holland at the time that I was there. Friends gave us a wonderful reception and after the last well-wisher had left we were finally ready to start our life together.

Actually, when people asked where we went for our honeymoon, we had to say we stayed at home. Trudy was already "away" from her routine life you might say, everything was new to her. We talked a lot. She related the stories of how she was verbally abused by her step mother, and how she had to cope with a difficult life in Holland. We recognized that God had resolved most of our problems, and He would continue to do so.

So, rather suddenly we found ourselves married. What did we actually know about each other? There were a lot of things we had to get used to. For instance when Trudy wanted to take a piece of fruit, or cookie she needed no permission from me, as was the case at home. Everything is different now. Yes, we took a chance marrying on short notice, but in view of how things had come together, we just knew that we could face the future with confidence.