Family Isn't Blood - Fred's Life Ch. 06

She returned with John in about 25 minutes to a room that was more crowded. The first shock to Zophia was that Bob and Carol were there, as well as her parents. The same smiling parents that told her they were not up to it earlier in the day. But the kicker for her was seeing her son Matt. He was holding Mary very closely with a familiarity that did not say casual. Snippets of conversations started to organize themselves in her brain into a picture. Before she could sort all of it out, I asked that everyone please have a seat. I motioned to Zophia that she was up.

She stood up and looked around. "We are here for a couple of reasons. The first and foremost is for me to say thank you for all the help you have been with John. I was shocked at the amount of time and energy you all have spent visiting with John. He is thriving because of all that you have done. His father, Carol and I tried to do all that we could for years, and it just was not good enough. John has blossomed because of you. Every time Bob flies across country, he schedules a layover at O'Hare. He has said that there is a tremendous difference in John's life. We can not thank you enough. John wants to thank you. He has personally picked out a gift for you." And with that, she sat down crying. John reached over and gave her a hug, and there was a round of applause. Bob and Carol joined in the group hug, and the clapping never stopped.

When those four were somewhat composed, I handed the bag containing the gifts to Zophia. She grabbed John and one by one, she handed the homemade cards to John, and he handed the card and gift to his visitors. For all those years, John did not have a big capacity for being with others. Today, he was in a hall and personally thanking, as well as he could, over 20 people. He was laughing with them, giving them hugs, behaving in an appropriate manner. This was heaven for Zophia.

When John was finished, and things were starting to wind down, I asked that everyone sit down again. That is when I walked up to Zophia. I pulled out a small box that Roza had passed to me a couple of minutes ago and got on my knee.

"Would you marry me?" It was and it was not a shock to her. With all that happened this day, seeing all these people who helped John, her family members and her oldest son. I could see that she felt a completness in life.

Waiting for her answer, I knelt there, sweating. She looked around and everyone became quiet. When a pin dropping could be heard over my beating heart, by now I was beginning to be worried.

"DUPEK"

She just called me an asshole, again, in front of everybody, again. The over half of the crowd roared, the rest were asking for the translation. Then they laughed.

This was classic Zophia being Zophia, I was less worried.

"Jestem w Tobie zakochany."

"Zophia, I'm in love with you too, but will you marry me?

"Tak!"

Hearing yes, the crowd started to sing Sto Lots.

Zophia was crying, her parents were crying, Cathy was crying, my soon to be sister-in-laws were crying, Iwona was crying, Angelka was crying. All the other women were crying. The men were tossing down shots of vodka or whiskey. Typical Polish gathering, all that was missing was the poker game in the back room.

We wed in early March. During those months, Zophia found out the Mary that Matt would occasionally mention, was part of our Chicago crowd. They were introduced by Maria's relatives at Christmas several years ago, and the relationship slowly grew. When Maria spoke about helping a Zophia from California, well, they put two and two together. Matt and Mary had been planning on tell her at Christmas. No plans for marriage, he was in engineering on the west coast, she needed to finish law school.

We had a small wedding reception of only 230 people. It was not a traditional Polish wedding, it only ran one day, not three. Both Bob and Carol as well as Rita and her date were there. Rita met up with a widower Chicagoan in Florida and they hit it off. He was a south side Pollock, she is north side. There's a big difference, Sox vs Cubs. Cathy says that they are good for each other in spite of that. Kaja was there too, but she was able to say that things were looking better for her, and for us to wish her luck.

Cathy gave each of us a special wedding gift. Zophia got a half dozen pieces of clothes line. I got a bandana and two bottles of rodatis. I love my daughter.