My parents-in-law's speech

Gord started by introducing himself as "Pops" (although Wade also calls him "Pa"), then said:

"For those who don’t know, Wade met Krista on the ball diamond, now Krista’s got the real diamond." (Haha)

Gord continued: "Wade and I have a lot of similarities. We love sports, especially Leafs hockey, Jays ball, and Jeff Gordon Nascar. I’m not sure about Nascar, but Krista enjoys her sports. Also, Wade has a spotless reputation like his Pops."












(For the record, I love ball and hockey. And I don't really like Nascar. So Gord was right in his assessment!)

Mary continued by recounting when Wade and I met: "he told me that she was a Queen’s student working for the summer at Dupont and that she was playing ball for one of the plant baseball teams. One evening his team was playing her team and he told me that he noticed that she had a really beautiful smile. Wasn’t that a nice beginning?"












At this point, Mary explained that she had promised Wade that they would not tell any "little Wadie" stories as he had just been a very sweet little boy. And then Mary looked at me with what can only be descripted as a naughty look, saying that she had a story she hadn't intended to share as she wasn't sure if it would meet my request for the story to be PG-13. (I was a little confused because it is rare that Mary tells any stories that aren't PG-13, which also made me nervous!)

Here's the story Mary told us about Wade as a kindergartener. Mary was doing the dishes when she heard Wade (Wadie) telling his little brother Mark (Marky) a new word at school that day. Mary eavesdropped on their conversation in the living room from the kitchen, and she heard Wadie saying, "I learned a new word today, Marky. It's 'truck'!" Marky repeated the word, but Wade got upset with him. This is Mary describing how she was confused this was a new word to Wade:
Wade repeated saying over and over, "No Marky, it's truck, to which Marky would repeat, "Truck?", which went back and forth a few times. Finally, Mary heard Wade say, "No Marky, it's an 'f' word!"

And hence my sneak peak picture of me laughing my head off!
Mary went on to say that after forty years of marriage, she and Gord should have profound and wise advice about marriage, but they don't. (Which also elicited laughter.) [In her defense, she always claims the secret to their happy marriage is separate vacations!]

So she ended with this quote from Leo Buscaglia: “A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself - to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved.”

And together, Mary and Gord welcomed me to the family and led a toast to a long and happy marriage.

(Source of all pictures: Unveiled Photography)