First of all, it is my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary on Valentine’s Day this year! We children have much to learn from them and have already learned so much. There are not many couples in their world today who have stayed married for so long. So congratulations on my parents for going against all of society’s conventions and keeping it together through everything!
The most important rule that I have learned from them is that family is family no matter what. It is ok to get angry with them (and boy do we get angry and annoyed with each other!) but you forgive them (and you work on the forgetting part) and move on. You can’t just write family off. You continue to engage them. Trust me when I say that there are A LOT of families who do not function that way.
So on to the interesting part of this story . . .
We three siblings are not always the best at remembering important dates and such but between the three of us reminding each other we manage to not have too many mess-ups. A month prior to the anniversary I finally did the subtraction in my head and realized that mom and dad had been married for 40 years (mom, please don’t kill me. at least, I finally did the math!) I quickly send out an email to remind the siblings about the very important upcoming event. Of course, we are stumped. What to do? My brother has the great idea to send them on a dinner cruise (he was always good at gift giving!). Our parents love the water and boating especially. Throw an excellent meal and a romantic setting on top of their two favorite things and I believe we have a winner. Boating was always such a huge part of lives growing up. Mom would kick us out of the house in the summer and send us with Dad down to the marina. While he worked on the boat, we played. So a dinner cruise sounded wonderful. After much searching an collaborating amongst the three siblings, we figured it all out, presented the gift to mom and dad, and me and the kids headed down to Friendswood to hang with Grandpa while the parents went out.
The day started with us leaving early for their house. Even I was shocked by this occurence. Turns out that was a good thing because the normal 1 hour and 10 min. trip took almost 2 hours to get there. Traffic was horrendous, but we managed to get there. And we waved to Papa and Grandma as they drove out of the neighborhood headed for their dinner. I had verified the reservation the day before, received all of the instructions, sent the parents all of the info, and we were set. They got to their destination on time and then they met the person that would set our evening into a tailspin.
One of the employees at the hotel, gave them the wrong directions and sent them to a different spot at the marina. There they sat waiting and watching for the boat to come. In comes a boat. A party boat with interesting characters climbing off. As my mother said, “we were worried that the young ladies were going to fall off the dock.” Meaning . . . they were drunk. My parents are probably thinking, “what have our children done to us?” I get a phone call an hour after the time that they were suppose to be at the departure place. “Where are we suppose to go?” I am thinking . . . the boat already left half an hour ago. What am I going to do? I told them exactly what the company told me. How had I screwed this up? My parents are not happy with me. I am thinking . . . if they missed the boat, I am leaving. There is no way I am going to be here when they get back. They are going to be livid! I will never worm my way out of this one. O.K. So after my slight panic attack is over. I call the company. Luckily the owner answered. “Please.” I say. “It is my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary. I don’t know why they missed they boat. They are old. I don’t know what they were thinking. But this is going to be a disaster if they don’t get on.” I said whatever it took to get my parents ON THAT BOAT. The owner calls the captain of the boat. He calls me back. My parents are on the land line and the owner is on my cell phone. I am trying to broker between the two of them. The owner says that the captain is willing to turn the boat around and meet them at the end of the pier if they can be there in 5 minutes. He says, ” I know your parents are elderly. Can they make it?” “Of course, they can they are not that old!” My begging and pleading worked. They picked up my parents at the end of the pier and announced them on the boat as the “anniversary couple.” The night was saved. My parents had a good time. Disaster was averted. Thank goodness. All I can say is that we had better start thinking about the 50th wedding anniversary now. This is all way too stressful!
The Puddles 
Kath –
You rock!!