Related by Marriage: The Wedding Rings

I mentioned—I think twice before—that Mr. Irene and I exchanged our Grandparents' bands as our wedding rings. I've already introduced my maternal Grandfather, Jake. He's the person whose ring Mr. Irene wears.

These are Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Anna and Stanley, on their wedding day. Anna and Stanley each emigrated from Lithuania as teenagers. They met and married in Chicago. Their wedding took place at the first Lithuanian parish in the city, St. George's.

Lithuanians divide their immigration histories into three waves ("bangos"). Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents emigrated to the United States during the "first wave," that is, during the early part of the twentieth century. The "second wave" rolled in when the Displaced Persons—my Parents and Mr. Irene's Dad—sailed over. The "third wave" arrived after 1991, when Lithuania secured its independence from the Soviet Union, and people again could come and go out of the country unfettered by restrictions.

Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents are the type of folk about whom Upton Sinclair wrote in The Jungle. These were the Lithuanian immigrants who worked in the Chicago stockyards, who owned the butcher shops, who populated the South Side, and whose identity pivoted around the Roman Catholic parishes to which they belonged.

Mr. Irene and I had no idea that we had scheduled our wedding on the same calendar date as the anniversary of his maternal Grandparents. My wedding band therefore has one date—and two different years—inscribed in it.

St. George's Parish, Bridgeport, Chicago, June 1917. Mr. Irene's maternal Grandparents, Anna and Stanley, pose for an elaborate wedding portrait.

Check out the bridal bouquet!