I'd never been to a U.S. citizenship ceremony before. I'd never even thought about it much. I knew the process took a long time but, beyond that, I knew nothing about it, until I was invited to one.
My dear friend, Betty, was coming in from out of town to attend the citizenship ceremony of her son-in-law, Raul. Raul is a quiet and soft-spoken man who works in corporate catering. He has been waiting to become an American citizen for many years and finally, last Thursday, he be came one.
I wasn't expecting much, but I was looking forward to seeing Betty. She had recently turned 80, and I hadn't seen her in ages. It took a long time to get all the families of all the soon-to-be new citizens seated, so we had a lot of time to catch up. Then the ceremony started.
