marriage of a thousand guests

The wedding of a thousand guests

995 words

         Sam Adams every day thought about his fairy tale romance and marriage. The dreams started when Sam was a senior at Berkeley high school in 1974,
         He fell asleep in class and saw them standing next to him talking in a strange language. She was stunning – the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was in her early twenties, with long black hair, and piercing black eyes. She had the look of royalty. She looked at me and then disappeared. He fell out of his chair screaming, "Who are you?" She did not answer.
Later that day Sam told his best friend, Robert Sicular who was in the class with him about the dream. He also told them that he knew that he would meet her someday and that was the woman he was destined to marry.

         Eight years later, on Wednesday, August 26, 1982, Sam got on a military bus at Camp Casey near where he lived in Tongduchon in a rented room. He was living very basically those days out of a suitcase in a rented room as his employer kept sending him all over the country.
          Sam got off the bus and the girl in the dream walked off the bus, out of his dreams and into his life. It was the moment he had been waiting for all his life. Sam had been dreaming of that moment for six- and one-half years. And here she was.
         Sam was struck speechless. He stared at her and she stared at him. And there was an instant connection, love at first sight for both. She was with another fellow teacher, Jim. Jim introduced them. They were going to see a movie and Sam told them he would meet them at the cafeteria at 8:30.
         The class went by in a blur. Sam was still stunned that he had met her. He came up with a lame excuse that he wanted a language partner, and she could help him with his Korean and he could help her with her English. They met up at the cafeteria.
         They talked about her life and his life. Then Sam proposed that they meet up on Friday morning for a hike and further talks. He was born in the year of the goat and she was born in the year of the pig. According to fortune-tellers they had a perfect astrological chart and were soul mates. In any event, it was love at first sight for both, and as Koreans say
처음에 사랑
chromium-e salang
         The next night she was waiting for him at the army base where he was to teach a class. She told him that she had to see him as she had something to tell him Sam signed her on to the base and left her at the library to study. She was a college senior she told him. They went out for coffee after class at a classical music cafe. She told him she was madly in love with him and that he was the man for her. He told her not to worry as he felt the same.
         On Sunday night in the same coffee shop, Sam proposed to her. Or she proposed to him, or they did it together.
         Maria looked at Sam and said
         “Sam, it is obvious we belong together. You are mine and I am yours.”
         “Maria,
         “I agree. Let us get married, October 29th is my legal birthday. We can do the paperwork then and have a wedding later.          What do you think?”
“          Sure. That will work. You have to meet my parents though soon.”
         “Okay”
         And that was that.
         In any event, they agreed that they would do the formal paperwork through the embassy on Friday, October 29th, 1982 which was Sam’s legal birthday. Sam was born at 4 am on October 30th but the night nurse typed October 29th on the birth certificate and refused to re-type it, so Sam had two birthdays and celebrated both.
         They married two months later after a Buddhist priest told her Mother that our astrological match was a perfect fit. Her mother did not want her to marry a foreigner. One day about a month after they had met, she invited him to meet her parents, but she did not tell them Sam was a foreigner. Sam brought a bottle of Jack Daniels for his Father-in-Law and Uncle in law and drank the entire bottle with them. He approved of him, but Sam’s Mother-in-Law still had reservations. After the Buddhist Priests told her it was a perfect astrological combination, she agreed, and they planned on getting married. as she put it, “who am I to go against the will of heaven?”
         A few weeks after they were legally married, her parents allowed Sam to start spending the night with Maria pending their moving to the Korean Army School where they would hold their formal marriage. As part of the job, they received an apartment on base, they would be the first international couple to get married at the Korean army school.
         Then they had their wedding. It was a huge celebrity wedding, and Sam had no clue. It was a first in many respects. In Maria’s family, she was only the second Chung Ju Lee clan member (the ancient royal clan) to have ever married a foreigner. The first was Symgun Rhee, the First President of Modern Korea, and the second was Sam’s wife, Chong Oak Lee (later known as Maria Lee).
         Sam’s father came for the wedding and the Koreans interviewed him on nationwide TV as he was a former Under Secretary of Labor and was the highest-ranking foreign father-in-law in Korean history.
         And finally, they were the first foreign-Korean couple to get married at a Korean Army base. Sam was newly employed at the Hangjong Hak Kyo, the Korean Army Administration school.
         Over a thousand people came to the celebrity marriage covered on all the TV networks!

Today is my account anniversary!

Write an anniversary story that has a twist, not your typical flowers and fancy dinner.

And remember to post with a B-ITEM link, and to include a word count in the post for stories (1000 words or less) or a line count for poems (40 lines or less) to be eligible to win.


Based on my true love story and excerpted from my semi-autobiographical time travel love romance SF novel entitled, “Timeless Love Stories.”