By Larry and Royanne Schissel
Memorable times in our our travels as seniors – so many! Recovering from knee replacement surgery x 2 for recovery and PT, special Thanksgiving and Christmas times, honeymoon gifts, and grandson’s graduation but the very special time was our 50th Anniversary at Wyndham Oceanside Pier resort in Oceanside California. We reserved a 4 bed room unit for our family and two double rooms for my sisters and their family. Our anniversary was in late November in 2015. The weather was perfect and the ocean beautiful!
The BEST, never to be expected, part of the occasion was the most a loving gift from my husband Larry! Coming into registration we were told our room was not ready. With a full car and the late hour, we were upset at the delay and concerned as we wanted to get settled before our family arrived and we knew we had to make a trip to L.A. to pick up our youngest grandson. Finally, they told us our room was ready. Going upstairs to our rooms we opened the door and as unusual we walked through the large foyer. Going into the big living area on the kitchen bar were 5 LARGE vases each with 10 long stemmed deep red beautiful roses, one rose in each vase was Gold! Fifty roses – so very incredible! Roses were special to our anniversary as each year we had roses to mark the year. At twenty-five years we decided to go with a white rose to mark ten years and red roses to mark the single years. BUT I never thought we would have 50! Beautiful and a wonderful forever memory. The roses really set up the weekend to be special?
My sister Helen was our great organizer and added many personal touches to the reception as well as the church service we had which was appreciated as I was still busy working. My sister Karen did all the last-minute organization for the food and snacks. We had our kids, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends and co-workers from my time with the San Diego Sheriff Medical services attend our reception in the unit with beautiful ocean views. The bar was on the outside patio and featured champagne and beer made by our son David. Yummy!
The entry way was so large we were able to do a small overview of our wedding so many years ago. A large portrait of our family taken for the occasion hung on the wall, the 1965 “Brides” magazines, the pearl prayer book and green rosary I carried with my bouquet. In addition, our daughter-in-law Anita set up my wedding dress on a mannikin (boy was I small then) with the headpiece. Impressive. At our church renewal of vows our daughter Aindrea dressed the part of my bridesmaids in hot pink, lovely to me. The Mass was beautiful and Fr. Dillard so included us into so many areas it was such a Blessing.
A great time was had and it will always be a memory that lasts forever with us.
P.S. the reason for the delay for check-in was because the staff and the florist had to get the roses in the room before us!
Larry and Royanne Schissel