and they lived happily ever after....

One of the things I learned the past few days was the story of the marriage of my in-laws.

I knew how they met.  I knew that Leo had spotted Agnes as she walked to school and wondered who that pretty girl was, where she lived, and announced he was going to marry her.

I knew that she never really had a home until they were married and that they lived in the same house for all 66 years of their married life together.

What I didn't know was how they got married...and I heard the story twice this week. Once to the registration nurse and once to Lisa, who will be Agnes' nurse during her time with hospice.

Agnes was Catholic.  Leo was Lutheran.  Now today we know that the two are very closely related, but 67 years ago they were considered to be extremely different.  Catholics must marry Catholics.

Grandpa Siemens gave his permission for them to marry because at that time Leo was not yet 21 and the law required the groom to be that age and permission was needed.  So he knew what was planned.

Agnes told Aunt Katie that they were going to visit her mother.  Agnes laughed during this part of the story because we knew that her mother was not a part of her life.  When her father died when Agnes was very young, her mother was more interested in her boyfriends than in her children and Agnes was sent to various orphanages until she lived with aunt Katie when she was in high school.

Instead of visiting her mother, they drove to Logansport and met her sister Madeline and her husband George.  They had made arrangements with their minister to meet and Leo and Agnes would be married.

When they reuturned home, her family was not very happy with her because she didn't marry a Catholic.  They were told the marriage was doomed and would never last.

She smiled when she said that, and with a little laugh she said, "But it did!  And for 66 years!  And we had four wonderful children too!"

And they lived happily ever after!  What a love story!