Godfather IV -- the next generation
What a perfect day today was. Everything came together in a perfect and beautiful way. It was a small crowd, we were only 20-some people in the church, basically just an extended version of our family. Our families and our friends Devin and Augusta, that is. Or, maybe I should say Don Devin, since he is now officially Hannes's godfather.
The ceremony was short and sweet, with the right people saying and doing the right things. Jessica said a prayer for Hannes, Jenny lit the candle and poured the water for the priest to bless and Devin held Hannes all through the ceremony in a way that can only lead into a major bonding between the two.
And I sat there, next to Jessica, holding her hand and watched all the people around us: My parents looking at me looking at them, Jessi's Dad getting it all on videotape, Jessi's Mom looking at Jessica and Hannes, Devin holding Hannes, Augusta taking photos of Devin, Joel taking photos of Jenny, Åsa reciting a beautiful poem and the priest switching from Swedish to Finnish and back.
It felt as if all the love in the world had come together to this one place, for Hannes, and for us. And everything seemed just right.
So I squeezed Jessica's hand, and took a look at Hannes. And then my Mom and Dad, and smiled. They both smiled back.
And I remembered how I once got skis for Xmas and we tried them out the same night on our backyard, and how Dad dropped me off on my first day of school and how Mom used to come home every once in a while with a bag of candy, with only that one particular sort of candy that I liked, I remembered how we would take long bike rides all around Helsinki on Sundays, how Mom called me up and told me I had got in the university I wanted, and how I ran through the glass door at Dad's work, and hundreds of other small details through the years. And I fought back the tears. The tears of gratitude.
Then I took a deep breath. It was time for my line. I answered the priest: "His name is Hannes Einari."
