Celebrating 60 years
Mark K April 4th, 2008
Last week my parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
We planned a surprise party for them and my job was to invite their friends. My parents now live in a small city at the northern end of the Sacramento valley. They had previously lived in a two other towns, located farther down the valley, so I called their friends from those two places to invite them to attend.
Each time I called someone, the conversation went something like this:
Me: Hello. Is this Mrs. Jones?
Mrs. Jones: (in a suspicious voice) Yes?
Me: This is Mark K. I’m the son of Dr. and Mrs. K.
Mrs. Jones: (in a worried voice) Yes?
Me: We’re planning a surprise 60th anniversary party for my parents for two weeks from today and are hoping that you will be able to attend.
Mrs. Jones: (five second delay and then in a cheerful, decisive voice) We would love to come!
There was no “Let me check my calendar and get back with you”, “We’d really like to, but we’re so busy”, or “Let me juggle my schedule and see if I can fit it in.” Amazingly, there was usually not even a discussion between the husband and wife before making the commitment.
I suppose you could argue that things get simpler when you retire and the children have all grown up and moved away, but I think that it goes beyond this. There seemed to be an understanding among these folks - most of whom are in their 70’s and 80’s - that this is the way one responds when asked to honor and celebrate with dear friends.
The event was a huge success - my parents were totally taken by surprise. When they approached my brother’s backyard for what was supposed to be a small family gathering, they noticed a surprising number of people with white hair and knew that something was up. Then when they started to recognize faces of their old friends, they each, separately made their way through the crowd, greeting, hugging, kissing, always smiling.
Some of these people hadn’t lived near my parents for almost 50 years, but today it made no difference at all. They were asked to come and they came - and it was clear why these friendships had lasted through the years.
- musings
- Comments(3)
My wife (your mother) and I enjoyed not only the great total surprise party, but also this great blog. As you note, this has been a great 60 years
with the entrances you and a lot of others have made over those years. We have been blessed with many pleasant
events over those years, and
very few calamities. We plan for many more happy years, and surely shall with this great
total family.
Thanks to all of you.
Love, Mom and Dad
I think the reason that your parents friends were able to accept your invitation without a lot of “I have to check with my spouse,” or “Let me check my calendar,” is not because they are retired, have no children at home, etc., it’s because they put people and relationships first.
Although I am retired (except for my small business) and my children are grown (my grandchildren aren’t!), I’m at least as busy as I was when I worked fulltime. However, when friends call, we make every effort to join them at whatever event they are planning. I don’t even have to check with my husband before accepting invitations because we share the same philosophy, “people first.”
Congratulations to your parents, and to their friends and family, on celebrating their 60th anniversary.
What a wonderful surprise you planned for your parents. I think it’s so important to put people first in our lives. This is a very heart-warming story, thanks for sharing it. I hope that I will always put people first, as your parent’s friends do. Congratulations to them on so many years together.