And Ringo Was His Name-O
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My Husband’s Story of the Special Guest on our Wedding Day
We had just arrived in Italy for our wedding. We had finally managed to plow through all of the complicated paperwork needed to get married in a foreign country, so now just wanted to relax and enjoy our time there. We imagined a week of unequaled bliss.
I had been dreaming a lot about dogs lately. The dreams were jumbled, so there wasn’t much clarity to them. However, the lyrics to a children’s song would remain on my mind afterwards. “There was a farmer, who had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o. B-I-N-G-O B-I-N-G-O B-I-N-G-O And Bingo was his name-o.” The dreams were perplexing, leaving me wondering what they meant. But I had a wedding to think about, so didn’t worry too much about my weird dreams at the time.
My fiancée and I had also been discussing the adoption of a dog from our local animal shelter, but had put the plans on hold until we plowed through our matrimonial paperwork. That would explain the convoluted dog dreams I was having. We planned to resume doggie discussions when we returned home after our honeymoon.
Coincidentally, at the same time, there was a scruffy looking little terrier that was hanging around the hotel parking lot, watching our every move as we unloaded the luggage from our rental car. We had a few snacks leftover from our road trip, and he looked hungry, so we put them on the ground where he would see them. As we rolled our bags inside, we saw him dash between the parked cars and scarf up the goodies. We made a mental note to give him more food, if we ran into him again.
Our wedding was going to be a small, uncomplicated affair with just a few friends. There wasn’t much planning to worry about beforehand, since we had already gathered all the documents we needed. So off we went to enjoy a delicious Italian dinner on the terrace of the hotel where we were staying, the same place that was organizing our wedding reception. It was there, as we were enjoying after-dinner drinks, that my thoughtful future wife presented me with a trio of gifts.
I unwrapped each tiny box and was delighted to find a different ring in each one. I had always loved rings, but hadn’t worn any since I was a teenager, since I repeatedly kept losing them. This…
