This past Saturday, my wife and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Alice Louise Hubbell and Samir Mahesh Shah at the West Parish Church in Andover, Mass. We’ve known Alice for many years because she is the daughter of my friend and colleague Mary Lou Hubbell of Lowell. The ceremony in the simple white church was all that the couple would have wanted it to be on this day—even a trumpet player in the choir loft. In the front of the church, a memory candle glowed.  On the back of the wedding ceremony program, here is what we learned about the two families being joined in this marriage:

“The memory candle today is lit to pay tribute to all the relatives, grand, great, great great and beyond, whose values, experiences, hopes and dreams have shaped who we are today. This includes the original Richard Hubbell, who came on one of the first boats after the Mayflower and took the oath of allegiance in 1642 in New Haven, the Hucks, the Irelands and the Hunters from upstate New York; the Langans from County Mayo who came to Pennsylvania to mine anthracite coal and the McCouloughs from Scotland; the New York City Germans, the Stendles, Meises and Masses, and Harry Runnacles, our only known illegal alien, who found his path to citizenship in New Jersey from England via Canada. From Russia came the Zastenchiks who settled  in Hillside, N.J., where Helen met and married Samuel Malarek, one of America’s first bus drivers and a standout with the Newark Bears, whose parents came to New Jersey by way of Prague. India was home to Bakils and Shahs, shop owners, farmers, and Ramanial Maganlal, a lawyer for the king. Mahesh K. Shah, a member of the first generation in his family to come to the U.S., arrived in New Jersey via Kapadvanj through Michigan. It is from this group that we have come here today. We honor them, and especially Alice’s grandmother Ada Langan, who died at age 91 earlier this year.”