I once heard a friend say Olive Garden is like the McDonald’s of Italian restaurants. As someone who comes from an Italian family, and has just recently eaten at Olive Garden, I can say this is true. I don’t want to be “that person” but it always makes me chuckle a little when a waiter/waitress corrects me on my pronunciation of the order. For instance, if I order a tortelloni they tell me it’s tortellini. As I write, even Microsoft Word thinks I’m wrong. Tortelloni is bigger and usually filled with cheese. Tortellini is smaller and usually filled with meat.

My ego aside, the reason for our trip to artificial Italy was for my grandma and grandpa’s 57^th wedding anniversary. After we had finally settled down, and all of our food ordered, my grandma announced she would be dominating much of the conversation tonight. She wished to tell us the story of how she and grandpa met, and eventually married.

Get comfortable.

Grandma was on her way to Pennsylvania for a very long awaited job. Previously, it seemed like things were just never going to go her way. Left and right she had been lead on by jobs only to be utterly disappointed in the end. Hope seemed to be completely lost until suddenly, out of the blue, she received a call that promised a position working with a youth group in Bradford, Pennsylvania, which, mind you, is a long way from an isolated cattle ranch in Idaho, but she was not about to get picky.

Somehow, she was able to find a carpool. The drive was long and tedious with the crowded car of young hopefuls. More than once the group got turned around, and by the time their destination neared, the atmosphere was beginning to become less than friendly. Once they found grandma’s destination it was as if she had become nothing more than empty baggage as they practically dumped her onto the curb and screeched away. It didn’t matter all that much though. She had made it, and was about to start an exciting new adventure in this small obscure town.

As she made her way to the meeting spot she thought about the job. She expected it to be enjoyable, easy, and possibly somewhat thrilling. What she did not expect was to be immediately whisked away to a youth party entirely in honor of her. The venue was packed with people she had, of course, never met, but despite this she was having a wonderful time. Everyone was excited to see her, and she was excited to be so eagerly accepted into the group. However, the eye catcher of the night was the live entertainment.

Up on the stage were two young, and breathtakingly handsome men with dark Italian features. However, at first glance you wouldn’t think it, because one of them was dressed in drag. Though she didn’t know it at the time, the two men were Tubby, and Dominic. Tonight they had been hired to entertain the youth with Broadway Show tunes, and some good humor.

Fast forward to a dance for the Youth Group. Grandma see’s the man she had only previously seen dressed as a woman swagger up to her and ask her to dance. Dominic is every bit as handsome as she imagined once the makeup was gone. The dance was lovely. She could tell he really knew his stuff as she watched him dance with all the other gals, and wished she could impress him with her own non-existent dancing skills.

Sometime after the dance Dominic got wind of a gal who would be good for a date, but not wanting to jump into things he discovered what car she drove, and followed it. He waited for the opportune moment to pull up real close to get a good look at this bombshell. He was not disappointed, but grandma and her roommate, who were in the car, were surely befuddled at the idiot who was driving so close to them.

Coming from a Presbyterian family, grandma was, at first, not sure of what to think of this suave Italian Catholic. She knew her mother would never approve, but a few dates later the couple found themselves in love, and without a care of the other’s religion, or social standings.

One night, after a while of being together, Dominic brought grandma to the opera, Faust, which she would describe as anything but romantic. However, it was lovely all the same. Just before the second act, Dominic began to fumble around in his pocket, and both suddenly, and unceremoniously handed her a ring.

“Wait what?!” I, my sister, and my mother say in unison across the dining table as my Grandpa held out his hands in a gesture that said, “What did you expect me to do?”

“That’s it? You just handed it to her?” I say, demanding the story to have more zest in this profound moment.

“Yup that was it.” Says grandpa.

“Well fine. Tell us about the wedding then.” Says my mother.

Jody’s wedding was, unfortunately, not to plan. You see, as she had predicted, her side of the family was none too keen about the idea, and refused to come to the other side of the country to see it through. Thankfully, for both their future, and mine, this did not deter them, and they decided to have the wedding anyways. The only problem was this meant grandma’s side of the church ended up with four people, and Dominic’s side of the church was, well, his entire family, which had occurred from a mishap with the invitation list.

My grandmother ended the story with, “I have always been unhappy with how the wedding went, and I suppose I have held it in for all these 57 years, but now, by telling you all, I am finally letting go.”

However, my immediate thought was, “What an enchanting love story.”