Happy Anniversary to both of you. Enjoy your dinner, but most of all: enjoy each other!
53 Years... well done!
53 years ago we got married in a kh by a bro.
about 20 years ago my wife and i, and two children left the cult , and have never been happier .. wifey was happy with the flowers i gave her and this evening we will go for a quiet dinner at a restuarant with a bottle or two of champers and if i`m lucky i may even get desserts , or not.. smiddy.
Happy Anniversary to both of you. Enjoy your dinner, but most of all: enjoy each other!
53 Years... well done!
mine was actually great because my non-jw parents decided to pay for the reception, limo, cake, dress, honeymoon, and more.
i can thank my non-jw parents for what a totally fun day it was.. but, half or more of the guests were jws, jws who don't speak to me anymore.
some have even slandered and abused me.
Pfffff... some subject you trigger. My JW-wedding wasn't very special, although at the time I thouht it was awesome (being 18 and getting all that attention, which I never had).
The wedding was cheap, I bought a dress from another sister (that day someone came up to me and asked "isn't that *sister's name* dress?" ), my mother didn't like the dress and never said anything nice about it, not even on the wedding day. She also didn't like the groom very much. In fact my parents told me weeks before the wedding that they were not going to give permission (not being 21 yet both my parents had to sign that they allowed me to marry), so I told them I would write a letter to the queen to get HER permission. In the end they were probably afraid what other people might say about them, so they gave in and signed.
We had a talk in the KH. Nothing very special. We asked an elder-friend of ours, but he wasn't a very good speaker... Usually there would be some illustration in the form of a gift. I've had seen lots of special gifts for couples and hoped we would get something special too... but we got a bouquet of thistles with one rose in the middle... I was supposed to be that one rose. But okay, I didn't show my disappointment of course.
Before the talk we spent a while in my parent's house with my family, then we drove 25 kilometers to my husband's parents to meet with his family, then we drove 13 kilometers to see my uncle and aunt (he was my witness beside my parents... in Holland both need at least one witness to sign, like a 'best man'), since my aunt gave birth to my niece the day before so she couldn't be at the wedding. Then we drove back to my inlaws again and from there we drove to the KH for the talk, also about 15 kilometers away. (Nice relaxed wedding day huh? NOT! )
After the talk we drove in 'procession' to a restaurant fairly close to the hall. There we had just a reception, no party, no dancing. We didn't have money for a party. But because my groom was son of an elder who gave talks everywhere he knew LOADS of JW's, and I came from a city where they switched and changed congregations regularly, so I knew a lot of JW's too... so we sent invitations to about 7 congregations! So we've been standing nearly all evening, just shaking hands from all the people that were literally standing in a row for half an hour (the row went on til outside!!) that wanted to congratulate us. My jaws and cheeks hurt from the smile I had to keep on my face (which wasn't sincere anymore after an hour or so, it felt like a mask) and I was asking myself why in heaven's name we invited all those people that I didn't even know!!! Over 350 people, including family, came to our wedding.
Of course most of them brought a present, so the day after the wedding we were busy unwrapping everything (and counting money haha, which was almost enough to pay for the reception) and we had our empty house full with stuff...
I would have wanted a weddingcake, as a little girl I always dreamed of a beautifully decorated wedding cake... So my parents said they were willing to pay for it, but only if we paid for a dinner for all our family members. That would've been a dinner for over 25 people! We couldn't afford that! So we refused to have a dinner, therefore my parents refused to buy a wedding cake. So there was no wedding cake, just ordinary pie from the restaurant.
On the wedding pictures were of course mostly JW's, but since we've been divorced since 12 years now I never look at them anymore. In fact, I don't have them. I think my daughter confiscated the album (which I made myself, the pictures were taken by a brother and that was his gift to us). The last time I saw those pictures (after I was DF'd) it felt awkward seeing all those people. Lots of them I didn't even know who they were, most of our 'friends' were already out of our lives, JW friendships aren't usually very strong and we had moved to another town. But some of them were long time friends and they have dumped me immediately when they heard I was no longer a JW.
My second wedding with absolutely no JW's around was amazing, it was a fairytale wedding, I felt like Cinderella, and I finally had my wedding cake with marzipan roses and silver coloured pearls And I had the husband that I originally had wanted for the first wedding!
that's what my oldest son said when i texted that our little red hen, goldie, against all odds, hatched herself a chick tonight.
nearly midnight now and i checked--there's another one breaking out to join the first one--.
--i put the egg to my ear and heard it cheeping!.
Aaaaaah.... I've got a smile about a meter wide Thanks for naming the chicks after us Maeve Besides, I'll send you a PM about the pictures
a story from my days as the accounts servant (not verbatim).
me: hello, [brother] here's your copy of the money slip for this meeting, i just finished the count.. cong.
secretary: thanks... who counter signed that there?.
No we don't discriminate women, they're just the 'weaker vessel' and well... they're no use to us superduperdubs anyway...
What an a$$hole!
i know for me it was soon after lurking here for awhile and reading some threads on the issue.
i remenber when i tore it into little tiny pieces.
it felt so liberating..
A couple of years after I left I threw the 'blood card' away. A couple of years after that I realised that my file at the doctor's still contained my request to not receive blood, so I went to the doctor and asked him what it said in my file... He then looked in the computer and said that it stated that I was a JW and didn't want blood. So I told him to change it since I no longer was one of the JW's and I do accept blood if I need it. Because of that we had a very nice chat which took a lot longer than the ten minutes he should have given me.
joined this website in july 2010 and havent looked back...so happy to be watchtower free!!!!
(i was born feb 16th 1983).. i'll be 31 years old tomorrow and i feel indifferent about it.
as usually my mom said your gonna be 31 but she didnt say happy birthday.
Happy Birthday Joliette You've got a whole life ahead of you! I got out of the cult age 33 and life only got better after that
maybe you remember my post about my experience 3 weeks ago, waking up crying loud because i was dreaming about my mentaly disabled brother.. i am sure it was a warning sign.
my brother is now hospialized and in a half coma situation.. my parents are broken and on dinial, thinking he will be the same as before the incident.. they are praying for armageddon, so he will be a normal healthy person.. today i visited them all and did see the effect of the watchtower unrealistic predictions and how this mentally effect my parents.. i pray for my brother he will have no pain during this stage of his life.. so, the dream seems a signal, an alarm signal for me.
maybe my brother, who can not speak at all, sended it out to me, living 100 km away.. gorby.
So sorry for you and your family. Must be hard to see them this way, knowing everything you know and observing them as an outsider (seen from a JW-view).
My ex-husband's grandmother died yesterday, so there's a candle lit here already... I'll light another one for you too.
Some dreams are messages, others are just images and emotions that need to be processed by the subconscious. It's hard to tell what dreams contain a message... but sometimes we subconsciously know there's something wrong and then dream about it. There's not only our five senses, energetically we can sense a lot more than you would normally expect.
Sterkte Gorby
i will write my story soon... .
Feeling both happy and sad for you. At least one stress factor will be out of the way, no more worries about fading, wondering if you should DA or be DF'd... Now it's time to build your new life, as a free human!
that's what my oldest son said when i texted that our little red hen, goldie, against all odds, hatched herself a chick tonight.
nearly midnight now and i checked--there's another one breaking out to join the first one--.
--i put the egg to my ear and heard it cheeping!.
Aaaaah what a nice story! Congratulations!
back in 1985 my then-wife and i were having a lunchtime "gathering" at our place to show some support to the ones in our congregation who were full-time pioneers.
i had just recently received the vinyl collection of the songs featured in the song book "sing praises to jehovah" which had been released the previous year.. .
many of these melodies sounded depressing to me although i would have never admitted it at the time.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Thank you so much Data-Dog.... Anyone wanna record this? LOL