Jack’s Wednesday guest post deals with what came next –

We settled into our new abode in the tiny one-street village of New Gilston, with Valkittie (pictured below) and our newly acquired dog, Rabbie.

Wendy quickly set up a non-profit charity called ‘Storytelling Unplugged,’ which created afterschool clubs and community events and she recruited like-minded folk as her team. She was still working on her PhD and traveling a fair bit to interview other storytellers scattered around the UK. In between all this she was continuing to write a regular column for the newspaper where she had worked in Tennessee. I saw her occasionally, a whirlwind coming in or going out the door. And we managed some fun marriage moments between gigs….

Meanwhile I was in a senior position in a local community college with five years still to go before retirement and gigging musically with my buddy, George, who had been best man at our wedding.

But –

Around March following our wedding the previous year, the phone rang. I answered it and Wendy heard me say, “sure Cittie, that’s fine”. I looked over and saw an expression accompanied by a long pause that I would learn to recognize over the next twenty five years. She knew that Cittie Finlayson was the organizer of the ‘Muchty folk festival – yes – the same one that was held the weekend we got married. “Did you just give away our first anniversary?!” she eventually said – – –

I took her to dinner. Next year, we celebrated our anniversary a day early.