All the World’s in Love on Hilton Head

The fish leaped, making a silver arc over the waters of the Inland Waterway on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Then it did it again. Some people said it was a mullet, some thought a trout.

Whatever finny visitor, it had the best view of all of the wedding guests. Everyone else looked at the backs of the bride and groom.

The wedding was on a boat dock leading out to the pavilion of Hilton Head Plantation, and the guests were standing and seated on the benches of the pavilion overlooking the water.

The bride was Mandy Thomas, daughter of my sister Patsy and Col. Frank C. Thomas. I met Mandy when she was 4 years old, her sister Muff was 3 and their baby brother, Bo, was 2. Bo was called that because that’s as close as his sisters could get to pronouncing brother when they were smaller.

Mandy was a beautiful child with turquoise eyes and black hair, as feminine as a lace fan even when she was plotting the destruction of the neighborhood.

Mandy, Muff and Bo. Patsy, their mother, always said it sounded as if they were a team of cocker spaniels. Mandy’s name is Amanda, Muff’s is Alexandria and Bo is named for his father.

His father was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps known as Tommy. He left Patsy and the three resourceful children in my husband Doug’s care when he went to Korea.

And when he came back, Bo was baptized with Doug as his godfather. I was always godmother to all the kids to my delight. There were only rare occasions when I despaired of the responsibility of these three beautiful, inventive children. What one didn’t think of, another one did.

They grew up in Marine Air Stations throughout the United States, going to dozens of schools. They were class presidents, student body presidents, track team champions, song leaders, team leaders. When they changed schools, Patsy always told them that the new kids were just friends they hadn’t met yet. That’s why they have friends all over the United States.

Mandy married a handsome man named Robert James Petrie who has a warm, friendly family from New York. All of the out-of-towners stayed in a large house on Hilton Head with an ever-changing cast of characters as people came and went.

The day of the wedding the bride and the groom dashed back and forth on errands--shoes for Mandy and Bob, hurricane chimneys for the centerpieces, a new blazer for Patrick, Mandy’s second son.

When we were all assembled, we were a credible group. The bride and groom together with six children by former marriages. The kids marched in together: Lance, Missy, Cassidy, Jack, Patrick and Katie.

Muff stood with Mandy and Bob’s brother, Edward, was best man. Mandy’s son Jack, handsome in his Camden Military Institute uniform, gave her away. Cassidy, Missy and Katie wore white and were wonderful, surely not the girls who just two days before were claiming that there was not a dress on all of Hilton Head Island that was fit to wear to a dogfight, much less a wedding.

At the reception, there were toasts, tears, laughter, music and the groom played his guitar superbly and sang in a mellow baritone.

I had liked him instantly and when he began to play and sing, I knew he was the right one.

There were random silver rain showers all weekend, but at the hour of the wedding, the sun was out and scattering golden coins on the water and the inquisitive fish.

It was a beautiful wedding for a daughter I could not love more if she were my own and the man I would have selected for her if anyone had let me.

It was a happy time with people I love. There were a few gaps in the ranks that hurt no more than saber wounds. That’s why this one is for Patsy and Tommy and Doug. Don’t worry, kids, Bob’s wonderful and Mandy is a happy girl. We all done good. You’d have all been proud of us.