Thursday arrived and we held a Souper Bowl lunch for Relay for Life at the hospital. Our Relay for Life team brought crock pots of soup, bars, crackers and lemonade and for $3 one could have a good hearty lunch. (Luckily I did remember this event and was prepared for it!)
Finally, the day we had all been waiting for arrived -- my parents' 65th wedding anniversary party. It was more exciting than their 60th because THEY planned it with the help of my Aunt Nancy who did the leg work for them. It was such a treat to just show up at the Hillside and enjoy each other's company and not have any task to undertake for anyone. My dad had a few things he wanted that Nancy carried out. He wanted all his brothers there for one. At their 60th anniversary, his brother, Kenny, did not show up and this greatly hurt Dad's feelings. Even at the party, Dad did not relax until Kenny walked in that door. Dad is the oldest in the family and Kenny is the baby of the family. There are 14 years between them -- just like the age difference between my brother and I. Of course, Dad is missing one of his brothers, Jerry. He died 8 years ago. He was number 3 in the line up of the four: Jim (my dad), Harry, Jerry and Kenny.
One of Dad's other requests was that there be a "head table". At that head table there was to be a vacant place setting to his right. That was to bear the name card of my brother who passed away 8 years ago. Even in typing this it makes me cry because I know how much I miss my brother and I can't possibly imagine how much my parents must ache for him. Dad did get a little teary-eyed at times that night but he handled it quite well.
I have to say that my mom was not looking forward to this party at all. Little did she know that my sister, Deb, had contacted a couple of Mom's Illinois relatives and as it turned out, my cousin, Don Wood and his wife, Lois, were able to come up. We held out and didn't tell Mom just in case our fair Iowa weather were to not cooperate. As the time drew closer, Don and Lois decided to come up on Thursday to visit prior to the party as well so Deb and I figured we'd better tell Mom so that she could have something else to worry about -- like what is she going to feed these people! Deb said that Mom just lit up when she told her that Don and Lois were coming. I told her that now, 65 years later, she can know what Dad felt like at their wedding. They were married in Mt. Zion, IL (actually I think the church was in Long Creek) on Feb. 2, 1947. Here in the great northern Iowa area got socked in with a snowstorm so none of Dad's family could come to the wedding as the trains could not run. At their wedding, Dad only knew 2 people at the wedding, my mother and his best friend, Roy Diehl, who served as his best man. As if getting married were not nerve-wrecking enough! Now at this party 65 years later, Mom has 2 Illinois family members to represent her! She was thrilled and it was so good to see them. Mom has been going through kind of a lull as she is realizing that she is now at the point where she cannot "go home again" as there is no home to go back to and no family to go back and visit. Her last surviving sibling is 92. She is my Aunt Mary and is Don's mother. She suffers from Alzheimer's and no longer knows her family. Mom has been telling me such great stories from her childhood -- I am thinking of starting a new blog and getting some of these in writing. She is soooo entertaining!
I can't recall the last time I have seen my Dad so happy as he was the night of that party. Even though he couldn't hear all of what was said, he was just so happy to see his family together. There were even a few people in the restaurant who came back to give their well-wishes. One was his cousin, Jim Thompson and another was a gal who used to be a nurse's aide at the hospital, Jodi (Asche) Anderson. My dad just thinks the world of her ;) -- as he would say, "She can eat crackers in my bed anytime!"
Nancy even provided a cake for my parents to cut and feed each other. This led to the clinking of the glasses and the "kiss". Mom was laughing after the kiss and the next day she shared with us what Dad had said. She said that it was so hard physically for the two of them to get in a good "kissing position" and Dad said, "I can do better than that, you know!" She just laughed and said, "Oh yes dear, I know!" Then of course she continued with the TMI and told us what a wonderful kisser our father is. Believe me, this is mild conversation for her!
My niece and her son ended up staying Saturday as the weather was "iffy" for her getting home to Des Moines. She really didn't want to get started and get halfway or almost there and run into roads that she shouldn't be on with her child in the car. It was a hard decision to make but it's always better to be safe than sorry. So after lunch (and a little snooze in the recliner), we went into my mom's and played cards and made oaties and had pizza and junk and talked some more. I think my parents are going to be napping for a week to catch up with the past 3 days!
This morning I rose early and headed to church around 7 to meet with Brenda as I was "John" (our regular cantor) today and we were teaching the chant Gloria and actually using it during the mass so I wanted to go through it before people started arriving. While quickly running through the Kyrie, I made the big mistake of joking around and instead of singing "Christe Eliason", I laughingly sang "Kristi Kay Eliason" -- hey, it fits! Unfortunately, I had it in my head for the real deal and struggled to NOT sing Kristi Kay instead! Who needs Fr. Huber to get dumb songs in my head? I do a dandy of a job all by myself!
I got home from church later than my family and Mike had the most blessed news -- I had to take him up the airport in Minneapolis as his ride backed out on him. He is going to Arizona with his brothers to golf, etc. for a few days. I was soooo looking forward to an afternoon maybe curling up with a book or a movie. I was NOT looking forward to driving in Minneapolis but the traffic was light due to the Super Bowl weekend and Reed and I got home at 5 p.m. Now I have 4 days to enjoy almost by myself (Reed doesn't raise a ruckus!)
To top the whole weekend off, Micah has his 21st birthday today. My nephew, Ben also turns 21. My sister, Cyndi, and I each got pregnant, miscarried, got pregnant again and ended up delivering sons on the same day 21 years ago. How weird is that? That was a wild day for my parents! It really doesn't seem like it has been 21 years. Happy Birthday, Micah and Ben!
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