My Crazy Greek Wedding

The wonderful Canadian Historical Brides series are all about strong women who forged a life in the provinces of Canada at various time periods.

For more info on ON A STORMY PRIMEVAL SHORE, thwarted lovers Amelia and Gilbert, see link at bottom of page.

Here's the story of my wacky Greek wedding. In 1975 I was in the navy and stationed in Nea Makri, Greece (the base is closed now).

NAVCOMMSTA NEA MAKRI

My fiancée, the handsome sailor I'd met on base the year before-George Parkinson-and I planned our wedding, but nothing happened as we hoped.

First, George was married though separated. Everyone shook their finger at me for dating a married man. But he contacted a lawyer back in Pennsylvania, his home state.

George and I did the unthinkable, we moved in together. My doctor told me to go off my birth control pills because they suppressed my ovaries, and guess what, soon I had a bundle of love on the way—and still no divorce in sight. It took a year for the divorce to come through.

I was six months along by now, but skinny enough to not show too badly.

Then Turkey and Greece attacked the island of Cypress, both wanting possession. America refused to take sides in the conflict. Greek students rioted over the American military being on their soil. Each morning we had to check under our car’s wheel wells to make certain no bombs had been planted. The US Fleet was ordered to evacuate Athens. I worked in the Message Center, and frightening warnings of attacks on Americans buzzed over the teletypes.

Greece closed the ports and airports, and George was trapped in Italy. He'd gone to play softball with the base team before the 'war' started.

In a panic, I knew I had to hurry and marry before my time limit was up for boarding a plane for home. Back then you couldn't fly after your seventh month of pregnancy. I was discharging from the navy and they'd assigned me my departure date. The clock was ticking.

Finally, the ports opened up and George made it back to the base. We had three days to throw together a wedding.

I ran to the captain's office to ask him to give me away, met with the chaplain for the service, and told all our friends the date to attend. It was mayhem but worked out. We married on May 12th.

Two days later I boarded the plane for home.

We have two sons, and two beautiful granddaughters. No fancy wedding, but a long marriage.

Next year we'll celebrate out 45th year together. And they said it would never last!

To purchase my books at Amazon or All Markets: Click HERE

 

For more information on me and my books, please visit my website: www.dianescottlewis.org

 

Diane Scott Lewis grew up in California, traveled the world with the navy, edited for magazines and an on-line publisher. She lives with her husband in Pennsylvania.

 

 

Tilly McCormack by Victoria Chatham

NOW AVAILABLE

For this month we have been asked to introduce the bride featured in our books. I knew from when my publisher, Jude Pittman, first proposed the historical brides series that my bride’s name was Matilda. The rest of it came later. I’d visited Banff Public Library to look for books on Banff and anything I could discover about the town itself.

I explained to the Librarian, Sarah McCormack, why I was interested in these books, and she was so very helpful. The more we talked and the more books she suggested, it suddenly came to me that Matilda and McCormack sounded very good together. I asked her if I could use her surname for my bride and she happily agreed.

I tend to get a bit carried away when building my characters and I had so much material for Tilly that, rather than load my book with her backstory, I chose to leave the majority of it in my research notes. I can tell you that her father was a Scot who made his way to Canada in 1900, leaving his home in Aberdeen in search, as so many were, of a better life in a new land.

Robert McCormack never expected to meet the love of his life shortly after arriving in Montreal, but when he set eyes on pretty schoolteacher Rosemary Delorme he lost his heart. WW1 separated them for awhile, but Robert was one of the lucky ones who came home. Tilly was a welcome addition to their family, and it was with hopes of giving her a better future that they headed west to Alberta and set up farming near Medicine Hat.

Rural life was hard enough, but the dirty thirties made life harder. Having lost her mother, Tilly worked the farm with her father but when he died it was almost a relief for her when the bank foreclosed on the farm. Alone and with no family to turn to, it was imperative that she get a job somewhere. Her father’s bank manager, Mr. Bentinck, was instrumental in helping her get her position at the Banff Springs Hotel.

With her black curly hair and bright blue eyes, Tilly turns heads. She doesn't understand why people find her so note-worthy. She doesn't see herself as attractive, but knows she's well educated, thanks to her parents, honest and hard-working. She's learned to stand up for herself, thanks to her father. Marriage to her is something that might happen someday but when she meets Ryan Blake, someday seems a lot closer than she'd ever imagined it could be. Ryan seems determined to marry her, but there is one small hitch in the plan.

However, Tilly isn’t the only bride in the story. I don’t want to give too much away, but one bride has to keep her marriage secret because of the mores of the time, one bride doesn’t want to get married and the fourth bride…you’ll have to read the book to discover that!