I wanted to title this post "Lucy is a Bastard," but Jason wouldn't let me. He thought it was too harsh, that "bastard" was too mean. Mean...but true. I found out today that Jason and I aren't married.
At least, maybe not married. Not legally married in any way that is proveable without a number of affidavits. I have had this suspicion for a little while now. A couple of years ago, I was doing some Internet searching/stalking of myself and others I Iove/am interested in, and I discovered this interesting site where you can look up old records. http://www.genlookups.com/texas_marriages/ And, interestingly, I did not find me and Jason among the rolls. I attributed it to a clerical error, the inaccuracy of the Internet.
Then last fall, after Nini got married, when she embarked on offiicially changing her name, she spoke of these official papers she got proving she was married. I was curious. I had never gotten these (nor needed them because I didn't change my name). I started to wonder where our piece of paper was: Did our priest forget to send in the paperwork? But I laid it on the Big Worry Heap, alongside such issues as "that hall closet is kinda gross" and "I should have better posture."
Today, I realized we were going to Canada. I mean, I knew we were going to Canada, but I realized my passport had expired and I might need something more than charm to get me across the border (charm still works well when crossing to Mexico, by the way). So I researched the documents we'd need, searched wildly in my office for my birth certificate, found my youngest sister's birth certificate (which lists her as a MALE, further to the flaws in the system!), then had to go down to the Bureau of Vital Statistics to get my own.
I filled out the necessary forms and saw that at the same time, I could get a letter of "marriage verification." So I decided to get my birth certificate and solve the mystery of our marriage all at once.
No record. No record of our marriage, seven years later. At least not at Vital Statistics. Our next step is to take it up with the county, who has our marriage license on file. Hopefully, any number of nice people who vowed before God and everyone to support our marriage would be willing to sign an affidavit saying they'd witnessed an actual ceremony. But there is certainly more documentation to pursue.
For now, seven years later, it appears we have been playing a good game of house! Here I thought I was being so modern by not taking Jason's name. For the nine hours I have been a common-law wife, I've been distressed. It seems I am more conventional than I thought.
For Lu's part, I think, with the right attorneys, she still stands to inherit the Sugawa fortune.
p.s. Sorry to all of you who gave gifts and ate cake (and even sorrier to those of you who sent gifts and got no cake -- you were truly robbed).