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RODNEY THRASHIt was Friday the 13th, a hurricane and the Olympics' opening ceremony. Why not add one more thing?
TAMPA - Carol Berc braced for the worst Friday morning, but also recognized an opportunity in the looming storm.
She frantically brought in patio furniture, put sand bags around the doors, filled the bathtub with water and made sure the house was stocked with an adequate supply of canned goods. And she set her son's wedding date - Aug. 13, 2004.
For weeks, Frank and Bascia Auge couldn't decide on a date. They had the license. They just couldn't make up their minds about when to tie the knot.
So Berc, Frank Auge's mother, decided for them.
"This is the perfect time," she told them. It was a day of so much significance, Berc said. Friday the 13th. The beginning of the 2004 Summer Olympic games. And the day of one of Florida's worst hurricanes.
By afternoon, after the threat of Hurricane Charley subsided, she watched her 28-year-old son marry his soulmate. At 4 p.m. Friday, under a light drizzle and high wind gusts, the Auges wed on the deck of Berc's Clearwater home.
"It wouldn't have done us any good to be nervous," the 57-year-old Clearwater woman said Saturday as she watched her granddaughter run across the International Plaza playscape. "You have to make the best of everything."
The newlyweds wanted to spend Saturday alone, so Berc became the designated babysitter to the couple's 6-year-old daughter, Morgan Auge.
"It was something to remember," Berc said.