Rick and Stacy Newman

Last Saturday morning, my mother, my sister and I left my house and drove to Akron, Ohio, to attend the wedding of my cousin, Rick Newman. Rick's father is Dave Newman, my father's younger brother. Dave and his wife, Renee, raised their boys (Rick and Rob) in Phoenix, Arizona, although Rick lives and works in Hawaii at present.

I've always felt particularly close to Dave, probably because apart from my mother, he is the closest link I have to my father. When you lose a parent at a young age, like I did, in some ways you spend the rest of your life searching for bits and pieces of information about him or her. Stories, anecdotes, etc., all of which you glean from others, help to fill in the blanks in hour mind of who that person, your parent, really was. That's the way it works for me, anyway. Dave has been generous with me over the years, especially when I was younger, in helping me learn more about my father. I'll always be grateful to him for that.

Dave's sons have almost been like younger brothers to me. When I was in college and law school, I used to get out to Phoenix on occasion to spend time with them. Unfortunately, it had been several years since I had seen them, so I was really looking forward to the wedding.

We arrived in Akron Saturday afternoon, in time to attend the rehearsal dinner, downtown, at a brew pub. It was a treat to see so many people from my father's side of the family, people I just don't get to see often enough - my father's sisters Leslee and Glenda, Dave's family and Leslee's son, Max.

Sunday morning, the wedding day, we all got up and drove over to a fantastic, 30-mile gravel trail along the Cuyahoga River. We broke up into groups, some walkers and some runners. Rick, an ultra marathoner friend of his from Wilmington, North Carolina (Chris) and I had decided the night before to run 10 miles. We ran on the trail out five miles, then back five miles at a pretty good clip - 8:20 miles or so by my watch. I think Rick was a little surprised he couldn't outrun an old man like me. I was pretty impressed with myself when we finished, until I learned Chris had already run 10 miles before he ran 10 with us. Wow.

The wedding was at 5 p.m. that evening, outside, at the Fairlawn Country Club in Akron. It was a nice, brief ceremony, with a Hawaiian touch as Stacy's brother played the ukulele. The reception, afterwards, was inside. We had a nice dinner and danced the night away. It was a fantastic evening, one of the best I've had in a long time. I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to be there.