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Judge's girls putting old man through wedding
wringer
By Bill Whitaker
District Judge Jess Holloway and wife Patti face a situation
quite similar to that in "Three Weddings and a Funeral,"
except it's all in the family with the Holloways.
The three weddings are those of the honorable judge's trio
of grown daughters, all being undertaken within the same tight
time frame.
As for the funeral, friends jokingly say that's going to be
the judge's own, especially if the stress keeps wearing away at
him. After all, fathers often take it much harder when their daughters
go to the hitching post.
Then again, the funeral may be that of Patti Holloway, who,
despite moaning aplenty from the judge, is the one actually doing
much of the planning.
"Last year Jess had what I call a cardiac moment,"
Patti told me. "The doctor asked him if he had any stress
in his life. Jess said he didn't have any, then thought again
and decided his three old-maid daughters were causing him stress."
That's nothing compared to what happened this year. At the
moment, the Holloways are in the middle of three weddings.
Dorcas Holloway, 27, who works in a travel agency, got married
in Fort Worth toward the end of September. Come Nov. 22, Caprice,
30, who worked with the local probation office, will be married
at Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest.
And on Jan. 3, Rachel, 25, a lifeguard at the YWCA in Lubbock
and nursing student at Texas Tech, will also be wed at Episcopal
Church of the Heavenly Rest, meaning that a few days after the
New Year, Jess will no longer be stressed by old-maid daughters.
Which, of course, is stressing him out.
OPEN-CASKET WEDDING
"My mother calls my house 'McWeddings,'" Patti admitted.
"Everyone has been laughing about the situation, calling
it 'Three Weddings and a Funeral.' Jess has been saying that,
with these three weddings, it's going to be his funeral.
"But I say it's going to be mine!"
Actually, Patti says she enjoys planning weddings. As a girl
growing up in nearby Albany, she says, she often planned her own
wedding and would "tie streams of toilet paper to my hair
for a veil."
Initially, too, she was tickled at the idea of planning a wedding
in the Holloway family.
"I guess I am acting on all my wedding ideas and fantasies.
I just adore weddings. But then I'm also a real detail person
and, well, having this many weddings so close together is tough,
because I want to devote 100 percent to each." Problem: Each
girl wants her wedding planned a different way. The only similarity
between any of the Holloway weddings is that Caprice and Rachel
both want "what I call center court at Heavenly Rest."
BRIBE MONEY
The judge did try to address the situation his own way.
"Jess offered each girl a check - a relatively large check
- to where they could have money instead of a big wedding,"
Patti said. "The first two didn't go for it. We thought the
youngest one might, but she didn't either."
The judge was puzzled that this inducement failed.
His judgment: "Either my daughters have more money than
their father or else they have less respect for it than they should!"
Patti has been understanding of her husband's being stressed-out,
though at times it does seem a little odd, considering she's doing
most of the work and he's just doing most of the fretting and
stewing.
"He did help lick the envelopes," Patti said, "but
I think that's because he was hungry!"
For his part, Judge Holloway later admitted that, as far as
Patti is concerned, he's probably in for three years of "involuntary
servitude, one year for each wedding."
He said he had planned to take Patti to Acapulco early next
year, to recognize their own wedding anniversary, "but then
Acapulco blew away."
Bill Whitaker, who thinks the judge might save money if he
officiated at his daughters' weddings, can be reached at 676-6732.
E-mail: WTWARN@aol.com.
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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