Full Heart

I wanted desperately to write while everything was clear in my mind. Still, I'm not sure that I can adequately express the joy of the weekend.

If these busy weekends since the middle of February were preparation for this one, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I sit here ever so much more a Hunt than I was before this busy, fun, family event. I took the kids out of school at noon on Friday, planning on being on the road by 12:30. We didn't actually get out the door until almost 1:00, but we still had plenty of time. I was chomping at the bit to get unpacked (which I never actually accomplished) in the hotel and begin visiting with family.

We arrived (thanks to Don's GPS that I bought him for Christmas which was a wonderful help, getting us to the hotel, then from the hotel to the restaurant and back, then the wedding on Saturday and home) in plenty of time, only to discover that there were problems with the hotel and they couldn't offer us a room, despite our reservations of 2 months. They offered us two hotel rooms across the parking lot, but we held out for a suite and they eventually found one for us. We took Mom and Dad to their room, made a list of all the family member's rooms, then took our luggage to ours. Across the hall from us was my sister from California, her husband, daughter from D.C., and my niece's boyfriend whom I've never met but who stayed in our home over Christmas the year we were in England. Directly below us was my sister (the mother of the groom), her husband, my nephew and brother of the groom who was also the Best Man, and my niece (the groom's sister and bridesmaid). Once I dropped off the luggage, I began looking for any family I could find. My nephew from Alabama (the newlywed) showed up in my sister's room, so we sat down to visit. It was so cute. He was very excited to see all the family and commented that he had been walking down the hall when "Daniel Morgan walked right past me!" Daniel Morgan is his cousin from California. I loved that he called his cousin by his first AND last name and seemed so surprised to pass him in the hallway. Later, I heard that Grandpa was with him when they heard a woman say, "Daniel, you just walked past your Grandpa!" Blind Grandpa said, "Is that Marianna?" and Daniel, who had walked right past Grandpa and Chad and continued down the hall, turned and said, "Hey, Grandpa!" He hadn't recognized Chad (they haven't seen each other since they were children) and, apparently, had been preoccupied with his two little girls and hadn't noticed Grandpa, either.

And that's the way it went all weekend. We flitted from room to room, visiting this sister or that nephew. Everyone turned the deadbolt on their doors outward so the suite doors wouldn't lock behind them. If the deadbolt was out, the family was in. Grandpa finally set up permanent residence in the lobby. Everyone eventually wandered through and he was the unofficial greeting committee, getting to visit with every family member at one time or another. "They put out chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon!" he told us all this afternoon at lunch.

Tenny borrowed some of my sponge rollers. I borrowed Grandma's slip. Rachel (my nephew's new wife) borrowed my hairspray. Deanna slept down the hall on the pullout sleeper sofa in Grandma and Grandpa's suite. Lydia slept downstairs in Alicia's bed with her in Toni's suite so her boyfriend, Dan, could have the second room in Tenny's suite. Most of the time, Tenny's granddaughters were in her and Jon's room, so Deanna and I hung out there a lot. When a large group of the gals went to Lenox Square shopping on Saturday, Don and I invited any stragglers to join us at the pool. We fed Grandpa lunch in our room and everyone always seemed to show up at the same time for breakfast in the Lobby. My brother-in-law from California took my sons out both Saturday and Sunday mornings to play baseball in the parking deck and our van was borrowed several times. You'd push the button and stand waiting for the elevator. Then the doors would open and out would step a family member. More often than not, you'd never end up getting on the elevator after all.

The Bride's family was also staying in the hotel, and we enjoyed visiting with them, but there wasn't quite the sense of comraderie our family always enjoys. Some of us decided to have one last fling today and we made lunch plans at a Chili's just down the road from the hotel. My California family, except for my sister, were flying home this afternoon for work tomorrow. My niece and her boyfriend from DC were heading back this evening and my nephew from Alabama and his wife had to head for home, so lunch was our last opportunity to get together. No one was entirely sure who would show up, but we had a party of 19 and when Chad showed up with his new wife, Rachel, unexpectedly, we all whooped, clapped, and hollered shouts of joy and encouragement. Later, after lunch, we took family pictures on the stretch of lawn next to the restaurant. My children and the babies chased their grandpa and cousins and my mother tackled my sister in the grass and was immediately surrounded with camera's flashing.

The memories of this weekend will be replayed over and over again for the next several months. The only two sad things were that Amanda's family wasn't able to join us (which was gut-wrenching to all us girls - missing one of our sisters at such a special time), but we stayed in very close touch by phone. Just before the wedding, I went to where the Groomsmen were gathered to kiss my nephew and suggested to him that I call my sister at the hospital and let him talk to her.

"I already called, Aunt P.," he said. "She cried through the whole conversation, but at least I got to talk to her." I was so thankful for a nephew that loves and missed his auntie enough to call her minutes before his wedding and let her know he was thinking about her, even with everything else on his mind. That incident alone says volumes about our family and the emotions of this weekend.

The other sad thing was saying goodbye. It's never easy to part from family, but today it seemed even more difficult. Although our hearts were filled to overflowing, we're getting so spread out that occasions like this are becoming very few and far between.

One last story: My father's name is Wilfred Charles Hunt. He named his son Wilfred Charles Hunt II (my brother that we call Chuck or Chuckie). My brother named his oldest son Wilfred Charles Hunt III and we call him Chad. Mom and Dad rode with Don and I to Atlanta and we were among the first to check into the hotel. Later, when my nephew arrived and tried to check in, they asked him his name.

"Wilfred Hunt," he said. The young man working the front counter typed into the computer, then looked up at my nephew and said, "You already checked in!" My nephew told us all about it at the rehearsal dinner and commented, "I can't wait for Daddy to get here and try and check in under the name Wilfred Hunt!" Last night, after the wedding, my brother finally check into his room. The front desk called my father in his room and asked, "Just how many Wilfred Hunts are there?"

"Three that I know of," Papa responded. Privately, I asked my nephew, Chad, about his plans for children. His wife is pregnant and having a daughter. But Chad told me, "When we have a son, he'll be Wilfred Charles Hunt IV!" His wife quickly added, "And we've decided to call him Will." The plans are already in place for a 4th. It sure was exciting news. What a legacy that child will have!

And what a legacy each of us Hunts have. I think we all realized it once again this weekend.