two people in love

we attended a family reunion today. it was a very long reunion {5 hours to be exact}. there were a few awkward and uncomfortable moments, mostly having to do with a couple of far from interesting {and very lengthy} slide show presentations - but also a handful of funny family stories, some good entertainment, contests and activities for all ages, prizes, and a potluck...you know, the all the typical family reunion hoopla. as i sat and gazed around the room, and as my eyes beheld the sea of people in colored t-shirts, i couldn't help but feel a love for each of them {most of whom i've never met}...because all of us, in some way, some very special and important way, were connected. my eyes welled with tears as i reverenced and awed the sweet twosome that started it all. the different colored t-shirts we wore represented each of charlie and zina dana's 5 son's {one of which happen's to be the grandfather of my sweet john}. i wonder, on that spring day in april of 1908, as the two of them exchanged vows under a mulberry tree, if cute charlie and his little love-bird, zina, had the slightest idea of the legacy they would leave to their future posterity. and when they brought home their first son, ferrel, did they even consider that this would be the beginning of something that would go on forever? even long after the two of them were buried deep in the earth?joe dana was their third son, john's grandfather. i met joe several times while john and i were dating. he was a strong and stalwart man. faithful beyond measure and valient. an example to everyone privileged enough to know him. he passed away just two days before john and i were to be married. he had hoped to make it to our temple sealing, and i know that he was in fact there. i sat at the reunion today and thoughts of these things carried me away. i then tried my best to add up the number of descendants that came from just joe and dora alone. i counted in my head close to 200 people...i'm sure there are even more than that. and those are just the descendants of one of charlie and zina dana's sons. just one. those in attendance today, i'm guessing represented, at most, a small fraction of the entire group. a family tree with hundreds and hundreds of branches, that at one time started with only two. it made me think of that cheesy cliche saying, you know, the one that says...all because two people fell in love.
crazy to think that in a hundred years from now, hundreds of peeps could be gathered together honoring and remembering john and nicole eagleston.
kind of a mind boggling and exhilarating thought.