Life Goes On: Jesse and Cally Wed in Vermont

The Poet's Studio at Trumbull Hill Farm

On the 9th of June, 2012, adjacent to the Poet's Studio on the Pullman farm atop Trumbull Hill in Shaftsbury, Vermont, our son Jesse Stewart McDougall, age 33, took as his bride artist Caroline Stevenson Wheeler of Annisquam, Gloucester, Massachusetts, whose mother's family has for generations owned that farm, whose father was my roommate at Amherst College in our senior year of 1964-65, and whose parents' wedding (Mike Wheeler to Candace Pullman) I had attended in 1971, on the very same hilltop.  The sun shone, but not too warmly.  The breeze blew, but not too briskly.  The readings were both romantic and charming, one original by the reader, and one, about "becoming real," from The Velveteen Rabbit. (See link) Tears were shed freely, and all folk present, gathered as they were from damned near everywhere between Puget Sound and Miami Beach, treated one-another throughout the weekend with affection and respect.  The tartan of the Clan MacDougall was much in evidence, in the neckties of Jesse and his brothers and father, in the sash worn by the bride, in the pillow cover on which the rings were carried up the hill, and elsewhere in the attire of the wedding party.  Yes, the tartan was there, but not so brashly as had we all gotten kilts for the occasion.  Hence, it was a Pullman Farm Wheeler Wedding.  It was lovely beyond my ability to describe.

Dear Cally, you are, as you know, welcome in our family, and always in our home.  We love you.

I would post a wedding picture, but the newlyweds expressly asked us to refrain from posting pictures of them on their wedding day.  I guess they want this day to stay the glorious holistic memory that it is, rather than be reduced to a few static, published images.