This weekend, I had the honor of watching my daughter Simone get married, so rather than write a column about the great events of the world, I decided to share my father-of-the-bride speech:
Welcome everyone to the joyous wedding of our precious, gorgeous, loving daughter Simone and her dashing husband Jason.
Our first house here in Marion (Mass.) was on Planting Island over there past those trees. That was when homes there were relatively modest.
One day, CC, Simone’s mom and I were walking on the causeway connecting Planting Island to the mainland when she shared that her dream since high school was to live in this big old house across the water from Planting Island called Seagate, which looks like something out of Great Gatsby.
Thirty or so years later, Simone and Jason were talking with CC and me about where they wanted to get married, and, as first time Father of the Bride, I shared the dream that one day our daughters would be married right here at Seagate. Dreams still can come true.
Sim is one of five. Her extended family is huge. Her grandfather, my dad, raised in Puerto Rico, was one of 17 children, and I’m pretty sure none of her hundred or more first cousins was named Grohowski. It rolls off your lips: Simone Cruikshank Rivera Grohowski.
Only in America, but whatever name Sim chooses to use in her professional life, you will know her for her loving manner and ferocious competitive spirit, whether as co-captain of her swim team at the Spence School, where she would come home during winters with her hair frozen, just like it was when she was on Lake Michigan on the sailing team at Northwestern University where her experience here on Buzzard’s Bay readied her for spectacular success.
She graduated Summa cum laude with straight A’s and acceptances to every law school in the country, ultimately choosing Yale. Several years of hard work later, she landed that big job at a big firm, Gibson Dunn, where she is destined for greatness.
Simone has traveled and continues to travel the world by land and sea, sometimes running into dangerous, even potentially deadly incidents, like when she and her best friend and maid of honor, Isabelle, survived the terrorist attack on the soccer stadium in Paris in 2015.
Armed gunmen were roaming the streets of Paris, killing people in sidewalk cafés and concert halls at random. The girls were in attendance when three of the terrorists blew themselves up inside the stadium. They were attempting, but failed to assassinate French President François Hollande, who was cheering his team over their German rivals when the bombs started exploding.
Showing true grit, courage, and poise, Simone and Isabelle escaped the danger zone, learning the life lesson that the world can be a very dangerous place.
Not that he’s dangerous, but here comes Jason, Simone’s dashing husband, whose good looks and great physique can distract from his caring heart. He actually called me to ask for Simone’s hand in marriage.
Professionally, he’s in the digital universe, which I don’t understand, being strictly an analog guy. Whatever, we expect great things from this wonderful couple.
So tonight, we’re gathered here to celebrate this epic matchup between our beloved daughter and her debonair husband.
They make a great couple. Last summer in Hampton Bays, we were all outdoors working out. My sons Gabriel and Cruz were there with Simone’s sisters Isabella and Sol, when here comes Adonis and our stunning daughter Simone. They were lifting weights and doing stretching exercises. You would think they had their own TV show.
As my son Gabriel, the oldest of my five, said, “They are a stunning couple, legit, honest, forthright versions of the hard-chargers who are changing the world.”
It has been an enormous pleasure to watch Simone grow from our adorable baby to legal titan. She is one of those rare children—“that Girl” whom other girls love and want to be like—caring, compassionate, generous, beautiful, bright, open-minded, and openhearted.
Erica and I wish the happy bride and groom all the best. Raise your glasses to Simone and Jason.
