Band pipes up to mark Michael and Josie’s golden anniversary
IT WAS a very special surprise for Josie and Michael Cunningham when they were met with a pipe piper outside their home in Twin Oaks to mark their 50th wedding anniversary.
Family members were also present to enjoy, but the arrangement of a ‘surprise delivery’ had been set up by the couple’s niece, Jennifer King, who lives in the USA.
She explained that before Covid-19 hit, the family planned to host a reunion in 2020 to mark this celebration.
‘We have been talking about and planning for Josie and Michael’s 50th wedding anniversary for over a year. The original celebration was slowly turning into a big, once in a lifetime family reunion with relatives from Dundalk, London, Lancashire, Liverpool, New York, Barcelona and California all planning to attend.
‘As the coronavirus developed, it became increasingly clear that gatherings would be discouraged, prohibited, or at least irresponsible. My parents and family are the segment of the family that is located here in California, and we are not planning to travel via airplane anytime soon,’ she said.
Jennifer reached out to John Cullen of Gorey Pipe Band on Facebook, and so a plot was formed.
‘When we realised we couldn’t go to Ireland, we started brainstorming other ways that we might be able to help my aunt and uncle honour this milestone anniversary. John has been so very helpful as I tried to navigate planning a surprise from miles away, with an eight-hour time difference. This will surely turn into a story they will remember forever,’ she said.
All agreed that the surprise only added to their special day, before they sat down for a family meal.
The pair were married in 1970 when they were in their early 20s, and since then they have lived a long and happy marriage raising two children.
Being apart from family and their three grandchildren was a challenge during the Covid-19 lockdown as Josie explained that they stuck close to home throughout.
‘We did what we were told to do, we walked around the garden for the first phase, and we did our two kilometres then. Not having family around was difficult because we didn’t see them until the second or third phase. But we saw them on Facetime all the time so that was it,’ said Josie.
She said that Michael has seven in his family, while she has ten, and so this sees them having relatives all over the world, from Canada to Ireland, the USA and English.
‘Jennifer’s mother was my bridesmaid 50 years ago and they were over last year. Although we were disappointed about this year, we hope to do our celebration next year instead,’ she said.
Josie said that key to a long and happy marriage is acceptance.
‘In a marriage, you work at it. Life is always changing and you have to do without in terms of what you can and can’t afford to get or do and accept it’.