[Gathnet] Our 50th anniversary
Stuart Gathman
sgathman at hotmail.com
Fri Jul 11 16:53:53 EDT 2008
Dear Gathnetters,I owe you all an update on the last month and all of the good things that have happened. I left off the narrative in mid stream of all the good things the Lord has allowed us to have on my last Gathnet letter. This is because the rest hadn't happened.We had an invitation for supper at Anita's on Thursday night ( June 26). I had a idea something special was up so I suggested that Anne and I were rather tired and would come for the Luau planned for Friday night. As expected I got all kinds of “you just have to come!!!!” but still I had no idea just what was ahead for us. Well, we did get a most wonderful surprise! As we walked in the door at Anita's, a shout of“SURPRISE” came. We turned toward the sound and much to my great surprise, there was my sister, Cathy, Dave, her husband, Chrisy,their youngest daughter and Edger, Chrisy's “new” Dutch husband whom I had not met personally before. What a wonderful surprise. They live in the Atlanta area and I had no idea they would come so far just to be with us for this special occasion. Needless to say, many tears of joy were shed at this point. Finding out the Cathy and gang were going to stay for almost a week, I suggested that it might be fun for us all to take the train up to Santa Barbara to visit my cousin Beth who is having great difficulty getting around these days. Cathy did some fancy foot work on this and said we would see. Well......The next night was the night of the Luau, a specialty of Jim and Sue who spent so much time in Hawaii with the navy. Well, I donned my special Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals and we arrived at Anita's for the Luau. Walking in the door again we hear the shout “SURPRISE” again. Completely taken by surprise, we turn and who should we see but my cousin Beth Orr, her husband Dennis, and my cousin Barb Hinds, and her husband Hal. It was a great sacrifice for Beth to drive the six hours from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Especially driving through LA traffic on a Fri. I then understood why Cathy was hedging so much about the trip up to Santa Barbara. What a wonderful surprise. Even more tears of Joy were shed at this wonderful occasion.A side point on all of this is that a very good friend of Beth Gathman and us, the Slaughters, offered the use of their “house” for some of our guests. This place is an absolute beauty of a place which is very difficult to describe. It is on the market at this time (for several mil) and they had left some of their furniture in the house to make it look even more comfortable. Well, the Georgia contingent of the family ended up staying there, (the house is not wheel chair friendly so the Orrs and Hinds really couldn't join them). It was really a good vacation for Chrisy and Edgar who are missionaries for Operation Mobilization.During all of this time, most of the cousins stayed at Anita and Scott's. They had a big tent in the backyard and had girls night out and boys night out for sleeping arrangements. The McClatcheys had a giant table set up to accommodate all of the family. When we all got together, there were 15 out of 18 grandchildren and 18 adults. Quit a family to feed!! I am so grateful for all the work the kids put in on this to make this such a wonderful occasion. Well, that just starts all of the celebration.... On Saturday, we had the actual repeating of our vows and THE Concert. The family had rented Casa de Oro church for the occasion. It turns out that the Moody family of that church played a big part in helping this all come together. They were the saints who when the McClatcheys and us were ordered to evacuate our homes last fall, took us in and treated us just like family. Mrs Moody helped our girls with the dinner afterwards. Their daughter,Hanna, the violist, helped very much in the musical presentations of the day. First of all, I would like to make a comment on the sad state of so called “marriage” in the state of California. Anne and I were married by Dr. White, Anne's father at the LaVerne Church on 15 June 1958. We were married in the sight of God and under the laws of the state of California at that time. I hate to say this but our so called state supreme court (composed mostly of republicans) has decided that just because a vast majority of the citizens of California voted for the “One man one woman marriage” a few years ago that this was unconstitutional. In their opinion any combination is now called a "marriage". I want to protest this by repeating the CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE aspect of our union. Here I will include the Plan of the Occasion:
The Fiftieth Anniversary of Stuart and Anne GathmanJune 15, 1958,celebration, June 28, 2008
Prelude {Jacqueline, flute and Jonathan Gathman, cello}Processional {Stuart, our oldest leading Anne down the aisle}Renewal of Vow Ceremony {Pastor Alan Ernst}Fifty Years in Pictures {a beautiful multimedia slide show produced by Elizabeth Gathman}---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Concert1 My Heavenly Father Loves Me McMaster/DeFord Anna and Rachel McClatchey, piano
2 Jesus, Savior Jonathan Gathman Recorder quartet (Elizabeth Gathman, Anita Gathman McClatchey, Jacqueline Gathman, and Jonathan Gathman)
3 How Gentle God'sCommands Nageli/DeFord Anna McClatchey, piano
4 A Recitation Psalm 46 Micah McClatchey
5 To a Hummingbird McDowell Rachel McClatchey
6 Cripple Creek (A bluegrass hoedown piece) Hanna Moody, -viola, Elizabeth Gathman -banjo, Jonathan Gathman -cello
7 The Gathman San Diego Waltz ( a piece composed by Jonathan especially for us with a Germanic Austrian waltz flavored with a San Diego Spanish touch) Anna McClatchey –violin, Lauren Gathman – violin, Hanna Moody -viola and Jonathan Gathman -cello-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 “Take 5” Hymn Jam with Stuart David Gathman -piano, playing his special renditions of favorite hymns accompanied by Jonathan Gathman -cello and others
He Set Me Free Clap along, 5/4 Blessed Assurance singalong 1st verse Count your Blessings sing along Amazing Grace sing along featuring Hanna Moody -viola Stand up for Jesus clap along I've got a Mansion sing along
I have tried to make some comments along the way but to say the least it was a wonderful wonderful time and very hard to describe in words. It was upbeat and happy. We hope we have a video of this so if any are interested, please let us know. Jonathan planned the whole concert and while Anne and I were away from the McClatchey's home, they had numerous practices on new music and different playing partners. I am so proud of my gang and those who helped make this such a wonderful time, that I could burst with pride.
After this, we had a grand church dinner down stairs in the church. It provided a chance to visit with most of our friends and thank them for sharing our special time with us. Then came the photo session. I had temporarily lost my camera so I don't personally have any pictures of this but there were many friend and relatives with cameras taking pictures. I have already received a beautiful set from Barb and Hal Hinds for which I am grateful and I expect to have more soon.
A sad note however, The next day (Sunday) we received a call from Springfield, MO that Jacqueline's father was very very sick in the hospital and not expected to live long. He had a very rapid growing cancer but Jon,Jacqui, and their kids had a chance to spend time with him on the way to San Diego (They were camping along the way). The Lord had all of this in his perfect timing. Jacqui flew back to MO but before she landed, her father was in the presence of our Lord. She then drove to be with the rest of the family during this very sad time. Jon on the other hand had a car, and three children to get back to MO. Anita went with him to help handle the children on this long trip. She was also a great help in handling the youngest during the funeral service. Josiah really had no idea of what was going on and the rest of the family were occupied with the somber events taking place.
Anita came home, Jacqueline and kids are staying in Springfield for a while to help her mom, and Jon is back a work. Anita then went were her family to Big Bear for a mini vacation.
Well Gathnetters, this is along narration but I hope you got to this line with out getting too bored!
Love, der alte Grossvater
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