Mid-way between two trips to fantastic marathons in Asia, a happy occurrence came about on the home front. Karin and I were both born in 1959, she in November and I in February. So we were both born in the dark period of the year. The same goes for all our shared children. We had spoken many times of holding a joint summer party, but this had been quite illogical in relation to the family birthdays. In 2009, however, we decided to throw a joint 50th birthday to be held mid-way between our respective special occasions – in the summer, that is.
Just a few days after our return from China we began to plan this party and it turned out that we had both played with the same idea – of getting married in addition to the two birthdays. But the wedding was to be a secret, and our unsuspecting guests would be invited to a birthday party.
But first we had to find a date, and one special thing was of paramount importance. Namely that Elisabeth would be able to take part. She had already made it clear that she would never accept our being married without her presence. Because she was still living abroad at that time, we would have to find a date when she would be in Denmark. We included her in our birthday plans, but there wasn’t a single weekend during the summer months that suited all three of us. So we had to accept her apologies, although this was only pretence. Elisabeth was to spend early August with good friends on the Kattegat island of Læsø, so we took her friends into our confidence regarding the highly secret plan, and schemed together.
What we really wanted was to be wed in our garden, but this was not going to be easy. The established church would not marry anyone outside the House of God, and our local mayor had something else on that day. Fortunately, both we and the mayor could alter our plans slightly so that it all came together.
Saturday 8th August 2009 was the most delightful summer day you can imagine. Over the previous few days, we had erected two large tents and set up a barbeque. That morning, Elisabeth sat obliviously eating breakfast with her friends on Læsø, when her plans for the day suddenly underwent radical changes. To her great surprise and confusion, she was suddenly put on a flight to Roskilde, where a driver picked her up. She arrived last among the guests at our party shortly after 2.30 p.m.
Just before 3 p.m., we gathered all the guests in the open tent and opened champagne as a welcome drink, and at precisely 3 p.m., Mayor Poul Lindor Nielsen arrived to marry us on our own patio. Some people were completely taken aback, whereas some had already smelled a rat, but everybody had a wonderful afternoon and evening, which for Karin and me was unforgettable.
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