South America Blog #2

SOUTH AMERICA BLOG #2
17 November 2008
The Big Guy is looking after us!
Back in July on board the Norwegian Jewel, the crew told us that all one had to do to get married on board was to let the staff know. Later, in August on board the Norwegian Jade, the same message came across loud and clear. Just ask and it happens.
Just before sailing, Bill called Norwegian Cruise Lines to see if there was anything we had to do before boarding to have a marriage take place. We were told, for the first time, that requests had to be made thirty days before sailing! Yikes!
Hoping that rules were made to be broken, we made contact with the officer in charge of such things as soon as we boarded the Norwegian Sun on November 4. We found that 1) this captain did not do marriages and 2) there was no ship’s Chaplain on board on this cruise. We asked what options were open to us. Marvelous Claudia Lay, Group Services Coordinator, went to work on our behalf and look for ways to get us married. The best she could do was a civil ceremony at Manta Ecuador on November 15. Since this seemed like our only option, we asked that arrangements be made. We were required to furnish legal proof that Bill was not married. He emailed his attorney to have the document faxed to Manta. A few days later Manta reported that a copy would not do and that an original document was required. Since the piece of paper was locked in Bill’s safety deposit box Manta was scratched.
It next occurred to us that Bill’s brother Loran could fly down and join the cruise in time to meet our November 16 hoped for wedding date. Loran quickly agreed and Bill set about to rent a cabin for his stay on the Sun. Bill immediately found that NCL doesn’t allow passengers to join a cruise mid stream (so to speak). Bill called the NCL offices at Miami and talked to a line of supervisors who refused to budge on the issue. Brother Loran was scratched as an option.
We met with the travel company sponsoring the Machu Picchu shore excursion to see if he could arrange something at 8,000 feet during our visit to Cusco, Peru. He was quick to state that he knew of an Inca Shaman who regularly did “Commitment Ceremonies” and went to work making arrangements for us. We thought about the idea for a few days and decided against a ceremony squatted in the dirt while a brown skin native danced around sprinkling us with good luck potions.
We decided that the eggs in our basket had dwindled down to a final few that required that we find a passenger on board who could do the deed for us. For more than a week we had told everyone we had met of our lack of success in making our marriage a reality. We had half of the passengers saying hello to us and nodding their heads negatively to report on their searches. Bill offered our room steward $50 if he could find a minister among the 900 staff on board.
Finally, on Saturday November 15, we had two hot leads. A couple we had never met tackled us in the dining room and told us of a father and son they had met one of which had claimed to be a minister. At the same time, Denny, the man who bought Bill’s contracts for five cruises, reported finding a retired prison Chaplain he had met over the bridge table. Before we made contact, Claudia Lay called to tell us about the same man. Claudia met Reverend Joe Rigby when he asked if he could conduct a Sunday morning service on November 16 in the absence of anything planned by the ship. She suggested we go to the service and introduce ourselves.
On Sunday morning, November 16, we met Reverend Rigby after the service and arranged to have lunch with himnd his wife Shirley. Over lunch we found that Reverend Rigby would be pleased to marry us. We quickly contacted Claudia Lay who busted her buns making everything happen. Within a few hours, the Chapel was reserved, the Four Seasons Dining Room arranged a separate room for our wedding party dinner, Dottie called a number of our shipboard friends and invited them to our wedding and wonderful Claudia scratched up a handful of little flowers and arranged them in a small bridle bouquet.
A dozen couples arrived at the Chapel precisely at 6:00 PM and Reverend Rigby made us man and wife. Friend Marty Finver, the Bridge Director, was our official photographer providing a nice record of our big moment.
Our wedding dinner at the Four Seasons Restaurant was a masterful touch. New friend Roger Kent, who with his wife Anne served as our witnesses, offered the first toast as the one person in the room who knew us better than any others. Roger and Anne met us in the embarkation line at Francisco on November 4. The two dozen guests consumed nine bottles of ship’s wine that we provided as they enjoyed two and half hours of enjoying the moment with us.
When we had an opportunity to toast the moment, we thanked our new friends for making this big moment in our lives memorable. We also recognized that we had been blessed by our savior with a rich new future that we accepted with the realization that his expectation of us is that we would share with all we meet, through our example and actions, that love can be and should be a part of each senior citizen’s life. As two who have passed their seventy-fifth majority, we know that the richness of life found in a loving relationship can be possible if we learn to expect and work for the happiness that follows.
We love you all so very much,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Bill and Dottie Berck