Once upon a Twin Towers Valentine's Day
Eileen and Chris Jahn of Rockville Centre with their six children on Valentine's Day 2000, after winning an essay contest to renew their vows at the World Trade Center. She wrote about their story for an act2 cover piece, Feb. 13, 2010. For Business Section. ( Handout ) ltc Credit: Handout/Handout
Thirty-years ago this Valentine's Day, we won a wedding at the Playboy Club in New York. Chris and I had a June wedding planned, but entered the essay contest on a whim.
They had thousands of entries, and chose only 10 couples for a ceremony and dinner at the club, complete with a New York State Supreme Court Justice as the officiant, Playboy Bunnies as attendants and a weekend honeymoon in the Poconos.
After winning, we thought better of it. We reasoned that marriage is something of a higher-order commitment than a Bunny attendant should bear witness to.
We turned the offer down, but we had fun telling the story, and we celebrate our "almost anniversary" each Cupid's Day. It became sort of our lucky day, and we won dinners and flowers occasionally over the years.
For our 20th anniversary, we won another essay contest by telling our "almost" story. We were asked to be the first couple in a daylong marathon of nuptials at a New York landmark.
So that was how we found ourselves renewing our vows at the Top of the World on Feb. 14, 2000. Even though our town, Rockville Centre, was not far, our six kids had never been in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
The buildings awed them, as did the whole event. A local TV channel had us as its morning feature, and a local radio station played an interview with us all day. In a funny coincidence, the judge who presided claimed to be the same one from the 1980 Playboy wedding we turned down.
Our memory became bittersweet the next year when the towers fell. Our town was hit hard by the tragedy, making it difficult to enjoy the reminiscence.
A year or so later, our friend the judge gave our contact info to a National Public Radio reporter who was compiling a nostalgia series about the Twin Towers.
The recording of the interview helped to process the experience a bit. While it is hard to reconcile the good with the bad, we have learned that this is an unavoidable part of life and a long-term marriage.
Good happens and rotten happens. You get to choose which to dwell on.
People comment on our luck in winning two weddings, but more so on our luck in having a long, happy marriage. As we approach our 30th anniversary we realize that our luck is not completely due to chance.
Fate and fortune are part of the formula, but effort, work and a decision to love are bigger contributors. You take the good with the bad and you have to be willing to take a chance.
So, much like the lottery, with luck and with love, there is this common thread: you have to be in it to win it! I'm sure glad that we have.
