What I got instead was a wedding that meant something, and the difference between those two things turned out to be the whole difference between my father’s world and the one I was marrying into.

As we turned to walk back down the aisle as husband and wife, the thirty veterans came to attention on both sides of us, a corridor of honor the length of the church.

Washburn held a salute as we passed.

“Walk proud, Mrs.

Adeyemi,” he said, with the smallest wink.

“You married the best of us.”