WHAT A DAY!!!

Yesterday afternoon I arrived home to find Danny and her mom trying to sort through all the baby clothes that have been given to her. Quite a task. An hour or so later I dropped Arthur and Danny off at the hospital for their last anti-natal class, while I went off to the Deadwood Bible study. I arrived back home at about 10.00pm to Arthur shivering and all huddled up in the lounge, and in a lot of pain. He had a bad night, and was still in a lot of pain in the morning, so I took him to the hospital. He was admitted for observation. One doctor thought that he was passing gall stones, and the other thought that he had apendicitus. Tests were run during the course of the day, but nothing was conclusive, and he has been kept overnight in the hopes that a clearer diagnosis can be reached in the morning. And all of this while his wedding is on Saturday!!

While Arthur was in hospital, we received a call at the manse asking us to come and collect the marriage license, and check that we understood all that needed to be done. I went along, and found that the lady was talking as if Graeme was officiating at the wedding. When I informed her that this was not so, she informed me that it definitely WAS so, as they were getting married in a Baptist chapel, and only a Baptist minister can officiate in that location....

It turned out that Arthur had interpreted things said to him by the licensing official in the light of SA law, and had gotten his wires badly crossed. According to UK (and St Helena) law, the location of the wedding is very important, and determines who performs the ceremony. In SA, it is the person officiating that has to be licensed to perform weddings, and the location does not matter at all. We had to rush home and inform Graeme that his first wedding would be that of his younger son's in 2 day's time.

THEN we checked the unsigned wedding license, and found that Danny's middle name had been spelt incorrectly - "Rosanne" instead of "Roseanne". Back to the licensing office we went, only to be shown the births register where her name was written very clearly in block capitals in her father's handwriting as "Rosanne". Saints use their full names a lot of the time, and Danny was rather taken aback to know that throughout her life, her name had been spelt incorrectly - even on her baby vaccination card.

Last, but definitely not the least - while all these carry-on's were happening with the Becketts, the new governor made an announcement that the contract to build the airport had been signed, and that work would start before the end of the year. Thus ends many years of waiting and negotiating between St Helena and the UK government. The airport will change many things about the island - some for the better, and some for the worse.

Tomorrow will tell whether the wedding can go ahead on Saturday, or whether Arthur will be too incapacitated (perhaps recovering from surgery) and will have to postpone his big day.

I now have to go and press Arthur's suit and Danny's wedding dress that were made by a local seamstress, in case the wedding does happen the day after tomorrow.