WE GATHER TOGETHER by Edward L. Woodyard

We Gather Together Chapter Forty-Eight

Julia McCulloch had dropped some of the stuffing for the turkey on her gray wool pullover during a tasting and decided to change into an old blue denim shirt of Sam's if she was going to keep getting messy, especially with the grandchildren coming. As she put on the shirt from a hook in her closet, she glanced at Annie's oil painting of the rainbow over the headboard of the bed. The rainbow had come to symbolize her and Sam's marriage; it was theirs alone.

All four children knew the story behind how Sam asked Julia to marry him. Sam and Julia met when Sam's brother Tom married his first wife Bernice. Julia was Bernice's cousin; she and Emma had been invited to the wedding, along with their mother, Bernice's aunt. Tom and Bernice had met in Florida when Bernice was on vacation and Tom worked at a rental car agency at the West Palm Beach Airport, before he opened his car dealerships there, reselling used rental cars which he had bought at a nominal discount from the agency. Tom had been behind the customer service counter and given Bernice an upgrade. When her car broke down on the road and Tom had to have it towed back to the rental agency, Tom apologized to Bernice and asked her what he could do to make it up to her. She said, "You can take me out to dinner."

A year later, they were married in Bernice's hometown of Spring Lake, Illinois. Sam was his brother's best man while Julia and Emma were bridesmaids for their cousin. As parents of the groom, Peter and Anne McCulloch were there also, along with the groom's grandfather, J.J. McCulloch, who kept shaking his cane at everyone, saying this wedding was a waste of time and money and that the bridal couple would be divorced within five years. He had told his grandsons early on that women act from feelings and men act from impulse, so when Beatrice's venal feelings taxed their marriage, Tom acted on impulse and divorced her. J.J. was proved right.

And so was J.J.'s daughter-in-law. While Anne McCulloch wasn't particularly fond of Tom's choice of a wife in Bernice, she had liked Bernice's cousin Julia Lemasters right way. Anne had witnessed how both Bernice and Julia had interacted with the flower girl and ring bearer at the rehearsal and during the reception; one was too selfish to be maternal and the other was a born mother.

After learning that Julia had just received her teaching degree in elementary education and was applying for positions in Ohio, Anne pulled Julia aside at the reception to say that she belonged in New York and that Anne could help her get a job there. Two weeks after the wedding, Anne called Julia to say that she had a job as a third-grade teacher waiting for her at the end of that summer in Castlebury, New York, if she wanted it. And, Anne also told her, she had found her a place to live, again if she wanted it. Julia thanked her for both opportunities and asked about an interview, to which Anne said it was totally unnecessary since Anne was president of the school board and had already interviewed her at the wedding, only Julia didn't know it at the time. When Julia protested that it wasn't fair to other candidates, Anne assured her that there were no other candidates for the position who were as fortunate to possess Julia's qualifications. She told Julia that she couldn't say no. Julia couldn't – and she didn't.

Sam knew all this activity regarding Julia's future was happening but did not say a word to contradict any of it. He hadn't been able to take his eyes off Julia from the moment he saw her at the lakeside hotel before the wedding, something which had not gone unnoticed by his mother. His mother also knew that Sam wouldn't do anything about it based on what she'd witnessed in high school with his "girlfriend of the month" approach to dating. Tom used to say that every time Sam got an oil change, he got a girlfriend change at the same time, to which his brother would then remark that it had something to do with Sam's overactive dipstick.

When Sam met Julia, he was in his mid-twenties and had been working at the plant since high school, having chosen to work there instead of going to college. His mother determined that it was time for Sam to settle down and get on with his life. She wanted him to trade in his red Pontiac Firebird Trans Am for a more family-oriented vehicle, such as a Buick Roadmaster station wagon. When Peter McCulloch asked his wife why she was so interested in helping Julia get a teaching job, Anne Hartman McCulloch quickly countermanded her husband, "Peter, Sam is not moving to Columbus, Ohio." Peter was confused by her statement, but she was emphatic, "I like this girl. She's perfect for Sam. Propinquity needs to take hold."