Published: March 20, 2008 03:06 pm            

KENNETH HART: Another spin with marriage 032308

If you are one of the regular readers of my weekly column (and thank you very much if you are), you’ve probably seen me make numerous references in this space to my fiancee, Shari.

I won’t be doing that any longer.

That’s because she is no longer my fiancee.

She’s now my wife.

Yes, Gentle Reader, as you peruse this, I will have been wed for nearly a week.

It is my third spin on the matrimonial merry-go-round, her second.

After two years of cohabitation, we made things official on Monday, which happened to be St. Patrick’s Day. Shari decided she wanted to get married on that date because of her Irish heritage. I’m not sure whether I have any Irish in me or not, but I was pretty much OK with her request, since I’m usually drunk on that day, anyway.

Just kidding. Maybe.

The rather interesting thing is that we only decided a couple of weeks before St. Pat’s that we were going to get married on that date, so that was all the time that we — or, more accurately, Shari — spent planning the wedding.

Given that, the whole thing came off remarkably well, I thought.

We had a very simple ceremony, performed by the good Rev. Marty Gute at his Catlettsburg wedding chapel, with only a few family members and close friends in attendance. Afterwards, me, Shari and a few members of our respective circles gathered at a local hotel bar for cake, drinks and karaoke.

All in all, it was quite enjoyable, made all the moreso, I think, by virtue of the fact that we didn’t lay out a ton of money or spend months agonizing over every detail.

Besides, we’d both done the big church wedding thing before, so that didn’t hold any particular appeal for either of us.

The fact that Shari’s wallet was either lost or stolen as she was out running some last-minute errands on Monday did cast a bit of a pall over the evening. If anyone reading this knows anything about that, please get in touch with me.

Anyway, it seems the question that I’ve been asked most frequently in the wake of my nuptials has been: Do you feel any different?

And, my answer is: No, not really. But, yeah, sorta.

As I mentioned earlier, Shari and I had lived together before tying the knot. We know each other pretty well by this point. There really aren’t any more surprises, to speak of.

Despite that, having that simple piece of paper that says we’re legally joined does change things. It’s hard to explain how or why, really. But, it does.

And that isn’t a bad thing at all.

I realize that at our ages, neither of us will probably be around long enough to have a 50th anniversary or anything like that.

I’ll be happy if whatever years we do have left are filled with peace, love and contentment for the both of us.

And, at this point, I have every reason to believe that will be the case.

I love you, Shari. I’m really looking forward to us spending the rest of our lives together.

        

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