Uncle Ray

My uncle had heart valve replacement surgery, so cousins, this ones for you.

According to my grandmother, both sides of the family wanted Ray and Katherine to get together.  Finally, in my grandmother's opinion, God intervened.  Katherine's family's cabin was hit by a falling tree and someone was needed to repair the porch.  Naturally, Ray was called in.  He was already related through his brother's marriage to Norma, and he was a journeyman carpenter.

In Fresno, it's so hot in the summer that having a cabin in the mountains makes life almost bearable, being able to get out of the heat.  But the family wanted Ray and Katherine to get together so badly, that they toughed it out in sweltering Fresno just to let them be alone as Ray fixed the porch. 

They got to know each other, and were finally engaged during Thanksgiving week of 1959.  They were married between Christmas and New Years of that year.