On May 12th, 1962
…Joan McNab Crawford and Jeremy Lawrence Mattson were joined in marriage at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Rockford, Illinois. On May 12th, 2012 they celebrated their 50th anniversary by re-newing their vows at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, East Lansing, Michigan.
This website is a collection of blessings from us
…A menu created by Jeremy, a star drawn by Elizabeth, a song composed by Neil, and photos gathered by all the Mattson children.
Join us in celebrating 50 years of marriage…
While you are here, please sign the guestbook!
Dedication
(by Kate)
This gift is a celebration of you.
Looking for words. I cannot come to terms with 50 years.
When we began this project I got lost in bigness.
I would never find all the photos, all the friends.
How could we honor and represent the life well-lived –
two lives in one – and not fall short?
My words come out in quantities:
Five children. Six grandchildren.
Did I count eight pets?
(don’t forget the quail)
Houses lived in. Jobs worked. Places travelled.
Friends known. Friends lost or lost track of.
But quantities, even large ones, are small thoughts.
Qualities? I try words that would echo your joys and accomplishments,
tell of all the wonderful things you each have done and seen and made.
I fall again.
The list is too long; the achievements too numerous, too great.
But here is a truth:
That every picture I look through while choosing is full of laughter and smiles.
Not smiling-for-the-camera smiles with fixed grins and frozen eyes,
but smiling and laughing as though caught in the middle of the best joke,
the most wonderful prank…
that the joy and love that I see in your eyes
in your wedding photos,
reverberate and amplify over the years
and are reflected back in the faces and smiles of your friends and family.
I hope that the photos, music, art, and food that we share here give voice to our love and appreciation of you both and that you can see the laughter in our smiles too.
This gift is a celebration of you.
“To live well; to laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived: This is to have succeeded.”
– Elizabeth Anne Anderson Stanley