Closing The Circle

Angela insisted on a traditional Indian wedding ceremony to be followed by a legal service. With the pastor of the local Indian church performing the legal service.

My grandmother shocked us all by wanting to have Thanksgiving dinner at her house and even invited Angela's Father and Sister. Angela's father agreed and they planned to come down on Wednesday and stay till Saturday.

Surprisingly Thanksgiving went real smooth and grandmother was more pleasant towards me than anytime in the past. I commented that fact to my mother after we got back to the house. Then she told me that her mother had been researching her Family Tree and found out that not only did she have an Indian ancestor but that she had actually found three more in the family.

Angela and I went up to visit her father and sister for Christmas. We stopped back by my grandfathers on the way back and visited with him and aunt Bernice. When we started to leave Angela put a couple of boxes in the car. I asked her what was in them and she told me that it was your Christmas present from your grandfather but we were not to unwrap it until we got home. When we arrived back at home my grandparents were there and had a couple of more packages for Angela. Angela and I wanted to unwrap them but my grandmother wanted to say something first.

She first spoke to my mother. "Joan I know that we have been communicating more here lately but I have never really apologized to you about how I treated Nathan. I know I was bigoted but part of it was he took my little girl from me. You never knew it but your father and I nearly got divorced over the way I treated you. I guess over the years he had gotten used to the way I was and never said much when I put Brent down. The night of the Circle Ceremony he basically told me to shut up and start thinking about what Nathan's father had said, because if a man could tell just by looking at two twelve year old kids and knowing how their future would come about then the rest of what he was saying would not be far from wrong. I am so sorry I caused you grief all these years can you forgive me?"

Mother went over and hugged her mother so hard I thought she would break a rib or two. After the crying subsided a little mother said. "Yes mother, I forgive you. How can I not when I have always loved you even though we have not always agreed on things."

When the hugging and crying was mostly over grandmother then spoke to me. "Brent, you are the one that I owe the biggest apology to. Because of my narrow mindedness and bigotry I treated you like dirt. You didn't deserve that just because I did not like your father but part of it was that every time I looked at you I could see your mother and fathers love for each other. By treating you the way I did I cut myself off from watching you grow up into the fine man that you have become. I'm so sorry for all those wasted years. I asked your mother to forgive me but I am begging for your forgiveness."

"Grandmother, there is nothing to forgive. I guess I had more of my grandfathers blood in me than I thought because until this minute it never even occurred to me that all along I could see that deep in your heart you never stopped loving mom. And that you also loved me but never knew how to show it. I just put it off as just you being the way that you always were."

After all of the hugging and crying was over. Angela told me to go ahead and unwrap the present my grandfather gave me. In it was an elaborate Indian Chief wedding outfit complete with moccasins feathers and all. In it was a note from my grandfather. It stated that it was Identical to the one that Swift Buffalo was to have worn when he was married to Blue Fox.

Then it was Angela's turn to open hers. When she opened it up it was a beautiful white elk skin Indian wedding dress. My grandmother said. "I hope you didn't mind but since your mother was not here to help you with your wedding dress after I got your fathers permission I had Brent's Aunt Bernice help me with the dress, it is supposed to be just like Blue Fox's would have been."

To my grandmothers surprise Angela jumped up and gave my grandmother the biggest hug and kiss on the cheek that she probably had gotten in all of her life.

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The wedding went off without a hitch and after the ceremony my grandfather told me that he expected his great grandchildren to come up at least two weeks every summer so that he could make sure that they would always know part of their heritage.

In the years to follow Angela and I have moved around the country some going where my jobs have carried me and our two children have grown up to be just as good people as their grandparents were. Every summer no matter where we were living they went to stay part of the summer with their great grandfather until he died at the ripe old age of 103. Our son Jeff followed in his Aunt's footsteps and is studying hard at the University of Oklahoma to become the archeologist that Mary Anne turned out to be. Vanessa, who was named after Angela's mother is studying to be a doctor at Baylor.

Mary Anne became the leading expert in the field of Amerindian Culture in the U.S. she did her doctorate about the Perception of Truth and Myth in Indian Medicine Men. Mary Anne never married but from the way she talked she never is without some kind of companion. Come to find out later on she found out that she wasn't able to have children so that made her that much more dedicated to her job.

Melissa is now a Lawyer in a firm there in Tulsa. She has three children all in college them selves. Her children spent the summers with my grandfather also.

My stepfather died just after my daughter was born of a sudden heart attack. Mom never remarried but her and Angela's father spend a lot of time on the road in the motor home he bought when he retired. I believe the next time Angela and I go to visit her I'll bring up the idea since they spend so much time together.

Mom's parents died in an automobile crash two years after Angela and I got married. They left everything in a trust to Mary Anne's and my children. When Mary Anne heard that she immediately signed a document stating that she would never have any children and that her part should be put into a scholarship fund for American Indian children.

Angela and I have and always will be two of the happiest and in love people we have ever met. Someday when we both pass on we want to be able to stand next to Swift Buffalo and Blue Fox and show them that their love for each other was not a waste.