So guess what I did yesterday, on New Years Eve Day?

I got married.

I know. I can hardly believe it either.

So Nick and I got engaged on December 13th, which you already know if you follow this blog. Soon after that, I received an email from The Groton Inn, a beautiful venue in my hometown of Groton, Mass. They were advertising their brand new covid “elopement package”, which was basically a ceremony space, flowers, mini-wedding cake, champagne bottle sent up to the room, and a night at their Inn for our honeymoon. Because Nick and I have stayed at the Inn before, I get their emails and I read that one out loud to him, before we were engaged, back in November sometime. His response was: “Lets do it! Lets get married on New Years Eve!” I said “Are you being seirous?” He said “Yeah, why not? ” To which I replied: “well, I hope that wasnt your proposal, because it was lame. You need to propose for real.” I like romantic proposals – I always have. So that led to his proposal a couple weeks later, and we started to officially plan our New Years Eve wedding in secret. It was so much fun planning everything without anyone knowing about it. The whole thing was a whirlwind. We figured with the pandemic who knows how long it might be before we could have a “normal” wedding with lots of friends and family, and we are also trying to save up money for a down payment on a house this year, so spending thousands of dollars on a wedding just didnt seem like the smart move. Eloping sounded great, but I really wanted to still make it special – buy a gown, have Nick in a tux, write our own vows, and somehow have our friends and family be able to witness it. Enter the Groton Inn, and enter the Facebook Live idea. Putting our ceremony on FB Live was so great. Hundreds of people watched LIVE, chatted with each other in the chat box, and were able to witness this incredible day of love. I wouldnt have it any other way.

As I said in my vows, it took me years to get here to this place where love is once again a thing in my life, and I wouldnt have it any other way. Yesterday was filled with joy and promise. That being said, even though I am now married again, I will still always be Don’s widow. I am Nick’s wife, and I am Don’s widow. A remarried widow. It felt so nice to have Don’s family members in attendance yesterday via the internet, and to know they all support my new love story, and they all know how connected all of it really is. Yesterday, in his written vows, my new husband quoted me when he said “Love Grows Love.” That is pretty much all I need to know. I look forward to continuing to write here about the challenges of being a widow who is remarried. If youd like to see the FB video, it is up on my FB page under Kelley Lynn. It will remain there forever, and anyone can watch it, as it is a public post.

There was a lot of crying from me yesterday during my ceremony. Not beause I was sad, but because I was very emotional and extremely thankful for all the love I have had in my life. There was so much love present in that room yesterday and on the computer screen, coming through as people typed in their comments to us – we could feel their collect