Amma & Papa.

My siblings and I grew up calling our paternal grandmother “Amma”, the Icelandic word for Grandma, as her parents hailed from there. We called our grandfather “Papa” for no other reason than it went well with “Amma”.

My dad’s side of my family holds such an aura of mystery to me, maybe for no other reason than they are quite a bit older than most grandparents of people my age. You see, my dad is the youngest of three children. He came along when his dad was 29 and his mom 31. Dad, in turn, didn’t become a father until his late thirties with the arrival of myself, his youngest, a few months before his 42nd birthday.

My grandparents were a huge part of my childhood. Amma passed away when I was 11 but Papa lived to the ripe old age of 94, passing away in 2006.

At age 20 I discovered that Amma’s engagement and wedding ring set is gorgeous (the set she received later in life because hello? They were married in the dirty thirties.) I decided that come the day I was thinking about marriage, I would go ahead and tell the lucky guy “Oh, by the way, I already have a ring.” Eight years later, I did just that, and I’m proud and honoured to say I wear my grandmother’s ring today.

Once it was decided that Cariad and I were to be married this December, my dad mentioned to me that Amma and Papa were married December 23rd. Done: the date for our wedding was set.

Today is my first day being at Dad’s place since I became engaged and set the wedding date. The first thing I did was make a beeline for the treasured possessions kept in my childhood bedroom: Amma’s 5 year diaries, started in 1934, the year before she wed Papa. Here is what I found:

December 22nd, 1935:

All day preparing for the day and entertaining my sweetheart boy-friend. He makes me so happy!

December 23rd, 1935:

Our wedding day! The happiest day of my life & I married the bestest man in the world. The wedding was perfect.

December 23rd, 1936:

Our first anniversary, Gordon & I love each other more than ever & I still get thrills.

All I can say is I feel so incredibly blessed to not only wear Amma’s ring and get married on what would have been Amma and Papa’s 76th anniversary, but having the opportunity to read the words my 25 year old grandmother wrote the eve of her wedding and her wedding day is something I will always cherish.

Advertisement