We reached our 50th Wedding Anniversary in October 2003. They have been 50 wonderful years! The whole family gathered at our house for four days in August to help us celebrate. Three of Darrell's siblings, a couple of nieces, and our friend Mariarosa from Italy also came to help us celebrate, bring the number of attendees to 21 (not counting the two of us). On Friday evening we had a two-part slide show, narrated by our son, Randy. Part one covered the years from our parents' marriages (1924) through the first 25 years of our marriage. Part two covered the next 25 years of our marriage. Jane served a wonderful home-cooked meal during the intermission, and we also celebrated Andy's and Brendon's July birthdays then.
On Saturday morning we renewed our vows in a beautiful and very emotional ceremony at our church in Elkton. This was followed by a great lunch at the historic Lafayette Hotel across the Blue Ridge in Stanardsville. Saturday evening was spent socializing at our house.
We all attended Mass at our church Sunday morning, then spent much of the day socializing. Sunday evening was "dress-up" time as we all gathered again at our house for a photo session. That's when we took the first picture of us with ALL of our current descendants. Then we headed to the L'Italia Restaurant in Harrisonburg for a big dinner, the last full-group function of the celebration..
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