Today (Sunday) was our surprise party for Joy & Brian’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was from their three boys and their families, although Ali did most of the planning and arranging since they were local and we weren’t. It went off without a hitch—everyone got there on time, the food was delicious, and the setting was ideal.
Dale and I went up with the children, and Ali came by with Eleanor to pick up Joy & Brian to take them to Greenwoods, which is just in the next town over, Stock. There we (the offspring and family) awaited Joy & Brian’s arrival in the library. Once we’d said hello, Lee went to a door that led into the boardroom and started announcing people one by one, so that it wasn’t a huge heart-stopping surprise, and it was nice to see all these people whose names we’ve heard over the years in stories and put a face to the name. The best man and his wife were there, Joy’s best friend growing up and her son, who was the three-year-old pageboy at the wedding—they were there, as was Brian’s Army buddy from his stint in Singapore. All the crowd from Barking were there as we’d hired a minivan to bring them together . . . it was a lovely day. We were there from noon until about 7:30 p.m., although by then there weren’t many people left.
I did spend a fair amount of time, along with a few other people, watching some of the best Wimbledon’s men’s final that has been in a long time. The 3rd & 4th sets went to tiebreaks, and the final score of the fifth set was 9-7 to Rafael Nadal, winning over Roger Federer. I missed the first two sets but came in about halfway through the third and saw everything from then on. Fantastic tennis.
The only thing was that it was too cold (and sometimes rainy) for the adults to sit outside and enjoy ourselves, but the kids enjoyed themselves tremendously. Kayleigh was thrilled to have some other children to play with, and Jonathan and Max (who is only three months younger than him) hit it off famously again. (They first met last summer when we went to Southend with Glen, his girlfriend, and her three children—Phoebe, Max, and Holly.) Of course, my nieces Eleanor & Squeaky (Annabelle) and our nephew Christopher were there, although Christopher at the age of 15 spent more time hanging around Ben & Sam than he did running around the gardens with the little kids.
Anyway, I barely saw Kayleigh or Jonathan all day long, and I figure that since Kayleigh didn’t throw up on anyone that I heard of, she must be recovered. She seemed to have lots of playing to make up for when we got home, but I put her down in bed just past 10 p.m. and didn’t hear another peep out of her, so she must have been just exhausted. It was great to watch them all playing outside all day long.
The most important part was that both Brian and Joy enjoyed themselves tremendously and had a great time talking to all these people who came to honor them, some of whom they hadn’t seen for years and years. It was a lot of fun to arrange this for them. Happy Anniversary!
Posted by elizabeth at July 6, 2008 06:01 PMSo did you get to meet the mysterious uncle? Colin, is it?
Posted by: Jenny on July 8, 2008 05:37 PMUnfortunately, no--he had a speaking engagement that was booked months in advance of the party, so he couldn't come. (I did meet him last year, though, for about 20 minutes.)
Posted by: Author on July 9, 2008 05:47 PM