A Surprise Birthday Party

When I was twenty three, I was already concerned about other people and wanted them to be happy. My grandmother taught me at an early age that we are put on this earth to help others. She was a great example and role model for me. In fact her favorite hymn and one of mine is titled, “Others.” It is a very very old hymn that you don’t hear very often, but the lyrics give you a complete guide to live your life by.
I worked in an office in Sioux Falls and had made a friend there whose name was Meredith. One day she told me that her boyfriend knew this guy whose birthday was coming up and he wanted to throw him a surprise birthday party. She wanted to know if I would have the party in my apartment. Of course, I said, “sure.” I bought gifts, made a cake, had soft drinks and snacks for this guy I had never laid eyes on. I had never met Meredith’s boyfriend either. All I knew was that they were “nice” guys according to her.
Meredith told me what she had bought for the party and what time everybody would be there. The guys arrived and that’s all that came. No one else was invited. It was a blind date!
This guy ended up being my husband a few months later, and the father of my children.
I often think of that night. That birthday guy could have been an axe murderer for all I knew. We were married for twenty one years and for the most part we had lots of fun together. Wally was a wonderful man who enjoyed life, and his family. He loved to fish and to teach his children how to fish. The pictures that you see are of a proud daddy and his youngest son, Mike, with a stringer of fish and a really big catfish. I can remember Wally telling me he liked to take Melanie fishing because she could sit in the boat for hours and didn’t care if the fish bit or not, loved to take Mike to the dam in Flandreau where the catfish bit, and liked to take Joe to the holes where the fish bit really fast because Joe didn’t have the patience to wait. When we had a cabin at the lake, Wally was in his dream heaven, he could fish for our breakfast, and have fishing contests with my sister, Rosie. That was all well and good for those people, I had to cook all those fish. They were really good. Long live blind dates they sometimes end up to be fond memories.
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