All of our Granville Inn plans, well most of them, were undone by the weather. One of our claims to fame is making the most out of a bad situation. Now I describe it in a headline format: “State Shuts Down for Monnett-Westbrook Wedding.” It wasn’t that hard for me, my only consequences beyond it being cold, were calling the Granville Inn, getting them to agree to a reception only event a week later at no deposit cost, and not having my side of the family, parents nor sisters, at our ceremony.
The state, Ohio, was shut down for three days because of the blizzard of ’78 and not because of our wedding. We decided to go ahead and get married as scheduled even though it had to be at a completely different venue, one we could violate the no non-essential travel rule to get to without likely arrest. That venue happened to be Marilyn’s parent’s place as it had the largest contingent of attendees, including Marilyn, already there. I didn’t have to do anything to get it prepared and so cannot fully appreciate or describe the scramble they must have gone through. All I had to do was just show up and that is about the extent of my memory as well. I was and still am walking on air.
Thank goodness we have some poor quality pictures to remind me. They even scrambled together a multilayer wedding cake. This allowed us to practice our cake smashing for the official reception, with my family in attendance, the week later. We needed the practice. We both had too small of pieces and were far too polite, not only out of concern for each other but also where the crumbs would have gone, on her mother’s light carpet. 
(Marilyn let me be dainty with my second piece at the Granville Inn the week later before she fully crammed her oversized piece onto my face only partially hitting my large mouth. Since I am writing this I can exaggerate, regardless of how little.)
After the ceremony and after sharing cake and drinks with the guests who could make it, we got ready for our wedding night. You have to remember that a blizzard is snow and wind accompanied with a rapid drop in temperature to fully appreciate our wedding night. 
First, Marilyn dressed for the weather in fancy red underwear, long johns, and we went to a local Marriott rather than my cold apartment. (There were actual icicles inside the apartment.) It turned out that Marriott didn’t have the icicle problem because they kept the humidity down by reducing the interior temperature to close to freezing. This also meant that whatever food they served in their restaurant arrived cold regardless of how high they heated it to achieve the partial cooking.
But we didn’t care. We were married. And whatever else the cold weather may have ruined, it didn’t ruin our night. Let me just say that it was great cuddling weather.Our party at the official reception was too small to reserve the entire restaurant but I truly don’t remember if there were any other diners. Marilyn and I certainly felt like we had just gotten married. Our “honeymoon” period wouldn’t end for quite a while, if indeed it ever did, but definitely wasn’t over in just one week. The nicest thing about being married was that now if she fell asleep on me, I didn’t have to wake her up so she could go back to her place. Her place was now my place. I always enjoyed watching her sleep but probably not as much as she enjoyed sleeping. (But, I digress.)
In addition to not remembering other diners, I don’t remember what we ate besides the cake for dessert. That was good so we saved the top to be consumed on our first anniversary, also the subject of another topic.---------
Marilyn lost her life to cancer but was able to truly "live" until the very end due to a lymphedema garment from Don Kellogg, inventor and founder of Telesto-Medtech. It is due to the "living" he provided Marilyn and through his suggestion and connection with Saskia Thiadens of the National Lymphedema Network that the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund exists. It needs other people's help to remain a living memorial of Marilyn. Please help other people receive the gift of living by donating to the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund. Thank you.
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