And It All Worked Out

I got home from Peach's daughter's wedding at 6 p.m. and immediately fell asleep in my recliner.  I woke up around 10, aware that Walt had come home from the show he had been working and was watching The Caine Mutiny.  We talked for a couple of seconds and I got up to stagger into the living room and collapse on the couch, where I slept until 4 a.m.  I can't remember the last time I slept so long.

I think the combination of worry about the wedding cake -- making it first of all, then transporting it, and then the emotion of the day just wiped me out.   Lord knows I hadn't really done all that much to make me so tired. Well, except only getting 3 hours of sleep the night before!

When Peach told me her daughter Karen was getting married at the facility where Bob now lives, that it was just going to be a very small wedding (only 8 people at the facility, and about 20 at the house), I really wanted to do something to help, so offered to make the cake.  

I started the cake on Thursday and the first layer came out so lopsided that I worried that the cake was going to be a disaster.  Lately it seems I can't bake anything right.  I used to be a whiz at pies and cakes and that sort of thing and it just seems that whatever I try to bake is a disaster.  But I mushed on, hoping frosting would cover a multitude of sins.  Then, in mixing the second batch of frosting, I accidentally added twice the amount of milk and had to go to the store for more powdered sugar.  I felt so stupid!  Not only that, but I had turned on the beater so high that powdered sugar covered literally everything.  I was clearly out of practice baking cakes!

But by the time I was frosting the first layer, I was beginning to feel more confident.

Finally, all frosted, I put the two layers together, hoping it would all look all right.  It did.

 

Next came the angst about transporting it all the way to Sacramento and beyond.  The last time I took a wedding cake to Sacramento (for one of my best friends...this was about 20 years ago!), when I arrived at the wedding place, the entire outside of the cake had just fallen off.  I was devastated.  But Karen's cake arrived safely and I could finally relax.

It turned out we all went to the facility for the wedding, which was a surprise for Karen.  When we got there, they had set up a lovely table with punch...and a wedding cake (but just a sheet cake).  Peach had gone on ahead to get Bob ready and we all sat and waited for the wedding party to arrive.  When I saw Bob come in with Karen and Peach, I couldn't believe it.  He looked like a totally different man from when I last saw him. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.

There has been a marked improvement in his physical condition in the last 2 weeks.  He can even now walk (with a walker) from the physical therapy room back to his own room.  And he wasn't going to miss his daughter's wedding!

They expected him to "give her away" while seated in his wheelchair, but he insisted in standing up, so they got a walker for him and he did the deed right.

The ceremony was simple and beautiful and Bob was definitely a part of it.

Afterwards, Bob greeted friends and family as he always did, graciously, and with lots of laughter, though I got the feeling that he didn't recognize me when I went up to give him a kiss.

When the wedding was over, we all went back to the house for the reception.  Peach stayed behind with her kids to get Bob settled down before joining the rest of us.  It took a long time, but finally Karen and her new husband arrived, with the report that Bob had been very upset because he thought he was going home.   Finally everyone left but Peach and she stayed behind until he got his meds and then she, too, came home. 

In the meantime, Karen and Mike cut the cake.

My work was done.  :) 

Peach finally returned, but there were so many people who wanted to talk to her and I was exhausted (from doing essentially nothing all day!) so I just said my goodbyes and left.  I fought sleep all the way home and got to Davis just as the sun was going down.

It had been a good day but I was glad to finally be getting some sleep.