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Mill Pond staff helps Smiths enjoy wedding they never had
Married 54 years ago Sunday, Charles and Mary Smith never experienced the pomp and circumstance of normal nuptials.
Instead of a church wedding surrounded by friends and family, the Smiths opted for a date with the justice of the peace in Lawrenceville, Ill.
He was 16. She was 15. They were sneaky.
“I told them I was 16,” Mary Smith said Sunday afternoon as well-wishers stopped by their table to offer congratulations following a wedding ceremony conducted by Rev. Buck Martin in the living room at Mill Pond. “It was OK, my mom was going to sign the paper saying it was all right,” she added.
Charles, meanwhile, likes to tell “the gun story,” a tale he swears is true and occurred as he and Mary were sitting outside the Lawrenceville courtroom awaiting their turn in front of the JP.
“A police officer walking past stopped and handed me his gun, butt first,” Charles recalled. “He said, ‘Here, son, this might be easier.’”
The personable Smith stills appreciates the joke if not the sentiment.
Brooke Trissel and Ashley Lawson spearheaded the Mill Pond planning effort to put together a renewal of vows for the Smiths.
“They got married when they were 16,” Trissel said, “so they never really got a wedding. He (Charles, a Mill Pond resident) wanted to make sure, before he wasn’t able, that he could have a real wedding for her.”
The staff even took Charles shopping for his wedding duds, while beautician Lana Baaten did Mary’s hair and gave Charles such a clean shave, he was still admiring its closeness after he’d devoured his slice of wedding cake.
That cake, incidentally, was made by Mill Pond nurses Stacie Anderson and Amy Barger.
Some 65 friends and family attended the ceremony, including the Smiths’ daughter, Christina Smith, who lives with brother Charles Smith II and mother Mary in their Bainbridge home.
“I was expecting her to head for the door or head for the hills,” Charles laughed after the ceremony was over.
However, no fancy honeymoon was in the offing for the Smiths. He’s 70, and she will match him next month.
“We’re an old married couple,” Charles said. “We don’t need a honeymoon. Right now we’re just going to chill out.”
The wedding/renewal of vows was a first for Mill Pond, Trissel said.
Charles and Mary met in Vincennes, where he is from. They moved to California and then moved back to Indiana, settling in Bainbridge. Mary was born in Alabama and moved to Florida before coming to Indiana.
Married on Jan. 8, 1963, Mary suggests she’s found an easy way to remind Charles of their anniversary date, despite the 54 years.
“I keep telling him it’s Elvis Presley’s birthday so he can remember it,” she said.
He just smiled, shook his head and lovingly stared at his wife like a newlywed.
“We’ve been married 54 years,” Charles said. “I think we’ve done all right.”
