Thank You
This is the last of my pre-written blog posts concerning our CP and, after today, I will be having a couple of days off before trying to get back to the usual routine. I am away tomorrow which will mean no posts for a couple of days, but keep an eye on this page and I’ll be back with my usual bits and pieces before long. Meanwhile, there are so many people to thank. If I have omitted anyone, I apologise; drop me a line of you think I should have mentioned someone and I will do so in a future post. I’m working alone here and after so much fun and festival, I may not recall everyone. This is in no particular order, but here goes…
The best men for their speeches and other duties. Captain Yiannis, Fotini, their family and the lady who made the cake. Wendy and Adriana for arranging the bus and other things. Racheal and Anna for their work on the translation and helping with the town hall process of registering the CP in the Symi records (the first one ever on the island). The town hall staff. The Notary for her part in the process and allowing photos inside her office. Jenine for just about everything from planning meetings, to Jumbo orders, becoming ordained (a la Joey from Friends) to holding the ceremony, organising things on the boat and making sure it all ran smoothly. Sam and Harry for looking so smart, carrying the rings, being gentlemen and all their other help. Allan and Julie for the photos before, during and after. The guests who came to the drinks and those who came on the boat. We would have loved to have taken everyone, but that wasn’t possible. Everyone who sent gifts and cards – soooo many of them! And to everyone who gave money towards the honeymoon.
Andy and his team at the Old Markets Hotel for giving us two nights, a champagne breakfast and the best room in the house. Alun for his reading during the ceremony. Louise for the lasagnes and all kinds of other things and for being next door if anything was needed. Steve who arranged the music and light systems. Terri who played the CDs and did the DJ-ing. The Island boys (must discoer their names) who guarded the bay all afternoon and herded goats, tidied up and later congratulated us. Our family members for making the trip, some of them were only on Symi for 24 hours before having to head back for work. Gwen who made the wonderful waistcoats (contact me for commissions). These were lined with each other’s material, so I was blue outside and red inside, and Neil the other way around. Everyone who stepped in to help without question when asked to do something. And Anne, for her hat.
Oh, and Neil of course – and Neil’s late mother who had the good sense to be born in Ireland. I am now married to an Irish citizen and under current EU law can live in the EU by marriage to an EU citizen, no matter what the yUK does. This means, I can now say (by way of celebration) that Brexit-wrexit can chaotically shove itself up its own referendum, I don’t care.
Finally, on a more serious note, I should thank Symi itself. This was the first same sex civil partnership to be held on the island. The law was amended in Greece in 2015 and CPs have happened elsewhere in the country, but never here. The reaction we have had has been amazing. This is, after all, a pretty rural place in a very Orthodox country. If anyone locally hasn’t understood or did not approve, they have not made those feeling known. If anyone wanted to object, they have not. We have been congratulated not only by our British friends and others from Europe and around the world, but by our Symi neighbours in the village, people we hardly know who work or live in Yialos, total strangers and other Symi folk.
What was also special for me, was the way that one local lad of 18 congratulated us, another who is 14, and other young people who wanted to give us their support. Maybe it shows a shift in attitudes which will, in time, filter down to their under-generations and go some way to eliminating prejudice and ignorance (not that we have encountered any on Symi). This, I hope, will make life easier for young people in this country who might desperately want to be accepted for who they are and who they love, but who currently don’t feel able. As I write, there are – there must be – many near us who are in that boat; perhaps our CP on Symi has shown them that they too can be accepted.
