Celebrating Lifelong Love

Hello folks, let’s chat… Well, we pulled it off! We threw my parents a surprise 50th Anniversary party and it was truly a joyful day at Melbourne Baptist Church. When my parents awoke that Sunday morning they had no idea that all of their girls along with their spouses and so many of their grandkids, great-grands, and siblings would all be at church. And they most certainly didn’t expect to have Pastor Butch Goodman leading them in moving vow renewals. Nor could they have anticipated cutting a beautiful wedding cake afterwards before the loving eyes of family and friends and feeding each other those traditional bites! It was indeed a beautiful day, full of treasures to remember.

It also yielded some good stories before it even got started.

I called Aunt Marleta prior to the big event to see if she and Uncle Stan were going to make it from Natchez. I was happy to hear they were coming, even though Aunt Marleta was still put out with Uncle Stan over their latest escapade.

Seems the two of them were refurbishing their Airsteam travel trailer when Uncle Stan accidentally left the keys in a bag on the floor and locked the trailer door. Unfortunately, the only access was a small hole where he was planning to hook up the new refrigerator, and it was too small for him to wiggle through– so Uncle Stan convinced Aunt Marleta to lay on her stomach and let him push her through the hole by her feet. I should tell y’all that due to all of her cancer surgeries and reconstruction, Aunt Marleta has zero stomach muscles.

“I’m like a turtle on its back,” she said. “Someone has to help me if I’m gonna move. And what with Stanley’s own health problems, he couldn’t push me far enough inside to snag that bag with the blasted stick he’d given me.”

Aunt Marleta said she couldn’t imagine what the neighbors were thinking during all the commotion but by the time Uncle Stan pulled her back out, she was ready to lay that stick up side her dear man’s head.

And then she segued into what she was might wear to the anniversary party with nary a pause for breathing.

“I don’t have anything new to wear,” she said. “But, I’ll pull something out of the closet. I’m not gonna miss it!”

I told her she might luck up and be in high fashion. They say everything comes back around if you give it time.

Aunt Marleta agreed. “Yeah,” she said. “Which is why I keep your Uncle Stan around after all these years. I figure he’s bound to come back in style eventually.”

Hugs, Shellie