The Wonderful Wedding and Our Family

By Belinda

I slipped downstairs in the darkness on Friday morning.

Paul, who had been grumbling all week, like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, about the non-stop Royal Wedding coverage, had kindly set the TV up on a high definition channel the night before, and put the two essential remote controls, side by side on the coffee table--even giving me a demonstration before going to bed to make sure nothing would go wrong in the morning. I am a TV remote phobic; convinced that any button I push will not work--and normally this affects my life not one bit. :)

After a few nerve-racking tries, to my relief, the picture and sound did come on and I settled on the couch, snuggled in a blanket with my laptop at my side. The laptop was because a few miles away in Alliston, Susan also would be up. We planned to connect by email and touch base, watching "together" even though separated by a few miles of fields.

"I'm up," she wrote at 4.19 and missives flew back and forth from then on.

It was as the Princes Harry and William were driving to Westminster Abbey that I realized that Mum would be watching too!  Five hours ahead in time, but watching exactly the same thing in her living room. I picked up the phone.

"Hello," it was her sweet voice.

"Mum! It's me--are you watching the wedding? Isn't it wonderful?"

"Yes, darling. Yes, it is." and she gave a little chuckle.

We laughed at how we could be, for probably the only time ever, watching exactly the same thing at the same time, while 3,000 miles apart.

From then on I kept in touch at key moments--just calling to share the excitement--the first glimpse of Kate; her dress; the bridesmaids and pages; the walk down the aisle on her father's arm; the ceremony.

Rob was not home. I gathered from Mum that he was out "getting food." My hunter gatherer brother.

The night before I had asked Tippy and Torie if they wanted to come up and watch the wedding with me. Brenda leaves for work at 7.00 and said she wasn't into watching the wedding before then. They girls were stunned at the very idea of getting up that early in the morning. Torie in particular is comatose in the morning; they are, after all a teenager and pre-teen. They need their sleep; although strangely that doesn't seem to be the case at 11.30 pm. :)

At 8.20, as I watched the crowds moving down the mall towards Buckingham Palace, I thought of the girls downstairs and hated them missing it all. They would surely be up and ready for school by then so I went down to invite them up for a few minutes. Torie was awake but still getting ready for school in a daze. Tippy came up and sat beside me on the couch. A few minutes later Torie slipped into a nearby chair. Together we watched the vast crowd in front of the palace and the sense of electric anticipation, waiting for Prince Willam and Catherine to step out on to the balcony. We saw movement behind the curtains.

"Do you think if I started chanting, 'Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate,' it would help?" I asked.

The glass doors opened, and the crowd cheered. The girls watched, wide eyed; enthralled, the first quick kiss.

And Torie bestowed on Brenda that evening, the reproach of failed motherhood, "How come you never taught us about these people?" Apparently everyone at school that day was talking about The Wedding.

On Saturday when I called Rob and Mum for our weekly chat, Rob said that indeed he had gone to Sainsbury's  during the wedding, to do some shopping.

"I bet it was pretty empty," I said.

"Yes it was Belinda," he said, "and all the staff were gathered around the TVs that they sell in the store, watching the wedding."

In church this morning I found my small flock of  Burston grandchildren in a pew.

"Did you see the Royal Wedding on Friday?" I asked.

Four dark  heads nodded in unison. The two boys were not quite as committed as the girls, who got up at 4.00 am. They came down at 6.00 am.when the bride and groom were ready to "get to the point."

I laughed and told them that I was up at 4.00 myself.

"The best part," I said, "Was calling Omie in England on the phone and 'watching' the wedding with her."

William looked up at me, his hazel eyes wide, and said, "Did she go to the wedding?"

"No," I laughed, "She was watching it on TV on the couch in her home."

"I thought she would go to the wedding because she's over there." he said. Perfect William logic.

So that was how The Wedding was for our family--we had it covered from Grinch to "Happy and glorious, long to reign over us," and everything in between.