WEDDING DAY

Marriage
My wedding day was scheduled for early January. I decided to get married earlier than we planned so Fawaz could return to Australia with me. I had to apply for a number of documents from Australia and Fawaz from Syria and book at the local registery office in Kallithea, a suburb of Athens. We tried three times to get married and managed to have all the documents ready by the second try but we hadn't advertised our wedding in the Greek newspapers so the registry office refused our second attempt. I had bought a special maroon crushed velvet dress for our nuptuals but was so frustrated by the red tape of Greek authorities and not expecting to get married on that day, I wore a simple skirt and white woollen jacket for our third attempt.
To my surprise we were married on our third try on the 25th January in a civil service. There were two white plaster doves on the wall in front of us, one hanging sideways and one hanging upside down and two Jehova Witness friends of Fawaz's acting as our witnesses.
The service was in Greek and I was overwhelmed. We invited our witnesses back to the flat for coffee and cake and that was that, I was married. Fawaz had sold most of his possessions in preparation for our trip to Australia. His camera was included in the sales so we didn't have a photo of our wedding.
We parted company at Athens airport.I flew home alone to Australia and he flew to Syria to arrange his affairs.
We spent four years living in Australia. They were tumultuous and often sad times. I was cut off from my family and old friends, both from their intolerance and my inability to cross over between being loyal to my husband and letting go of my old life.

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