It seems fitting the last of my series of “wedding columns” this year would be Meg Gafford’s.
Her wedding ends what has been dubbed “The Year of Weddings” for me, and I can’t help but say I’m slightly thankful for it.
Six weddings of good friends, all in one year; that’s not fair to do to a single person.
The Gafford/Beard wedding, though, is the facet of the wedding crown, considering my long and storied friendship with the bride.
I’ve known Meg since preschool. I can cite evidence of this fact: when I was in the hospital having my tonsils removed, the kids in my class sent a book of drawings they did to, I suppose, help cheer me up.
While most of the drawings were rudimentary and simple (one looked vaguely like a bowel movement), a young Meg Gafford drew me what I still think is a very pretty rainbow.
That little girl grew up into a young woman who, like rainbows, tries to spread happiness and hope wherever she goes.
Like her wonderful parents, Doug and Cathy Gafford, Meg has always had a burden to try and help others, giving her time and efforts to try to make the world around her a better place.
She expects the best from the people around her; if you aren’t living up to what Meg expects you to be, she lets you know.
Some might say she has somewhat impossible standards that no one could hope to live up to; I say it gives us all a goal to shoot for, something to strive towards.
Maybe we’ll never completely measure up, but we better ourselves along the journey.
And, as we take that journey, Meg has always been there to help and encourage, spurring us along the path.
Tomorrow, she marries Tom Beard, a man I’ve grown to know and love over the last six years.
Like his bride, Tom is blessed with an extraordinary capacity for helpfulness and kindness, as his offer to help tutor Meg in an engineering class they took together eventually blossomed into the wonderful romance we are gathering together to celebrate.
Tom’s a great guy, and he treats Meg with the utmost respect and devotion – the way she should be treated.
I couldn’t have made a better choice for her myself – and those of you who know me know how much that irks me.
This is a couple I want to keep up with and be around.
“Reach out and touch somebody’s hand,” Diana Ross tells us, “and make this world a better place if you can.”
The Beards will be that couple that will reach out and touch.
They will try to make this world a better place if they can.
L’chaim, Meg and Tom.
May you be granted many years of happiness and love in your time together.
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