Well, we know that it all started with cricket. Howard was a fine cricketer in his day
and Myra was a keen cricketing fan. Was it the cricket she was following, we want to
know now.
But one day, when Howard asked a friend about Myra, and how much he liked her, he was
told that she already was "sweet" on someone else- a guy who played cricket for
Glamorgan.
Saturday 3rd April. Richard's House,
Cardiff.
Our parents had been away for the actual day of their 40th wedding
anniversary, and we suspected that this was to avoid any fuss. However, this would not
deter us. A fuss was what they were going to get.
We had considered a few options to celebrate this milestone. My mother always fancied a
cruise, but we thought that sending her on a missile wouldn't be so much fun for her.
In the end, we thought that they would probably like to share celebrate their
anniversary with some friends and family, and so we decided on a party.
We looked up some of their old friends and close relations, and mustered together about
30 or so names.
At 7pm, the following were gathered at the house -
Richard, Andrew,
Betsan, Lorraine,
Lance and Helen ( Lance is Dad's brother)
John and Eileen ( John is Mum's brother)
Rae ( Mum's sister in law)
Margaret and Muriel ( nieces)
Viv, Janice, Kevin and Sarah (cousins)
Hadyn and Linda
Lorna and Ralph
Cliff and Marion
Gwyn and Gwen
Rowland and Marion
Menna and Gareth
Margaret
And finally, the youngest, most excited
and special guest, their oldest granddaughter Grace.
The plan was for Betsan to drive them to my place to collect myself Andy and Lorraine
for a nice meal out. I had managed to deflect all questions about where we were going.
Betsan was to give one ring on the phone when they were leaving for the 10-minute journey,
but this didn't happen.
Instead of 10 minutes warning, we got about 10 seconds -
" They're outside now………." She told me on her
mobile…….
We shut the door and hush prevailed. They must have suspected something was afoot,
since there was a banner and some balloons on the front door.
My mother has always taken a keen interest in the appearance of my house, far more
interest I regret to say, than me. So it was no surprise that she would not be ushered
into the room full of guests behind the closed door before adjusting the position of some
pictures in the hall.
When I finally asked her to "leave that for now", she opened
the door to be greeted by "SURPRISE!!!!" Shouted in unison by the guests.
There was rumoured to be a book running on how long she would cry for, and how many
times she would say " I don't believe it", and you could see the male guests in
turn tearing up little bits of paper in regular intervals as the tears of happiness and
proclamations of disbelief continued unabated.
Everyone
got hugged and kissed, and it was great to see them so happy.
Everyone had a good time. Even my Father had more than his
Howard and Myra's 40th Wedding
Anniversary 1959-99
Here's
the Scoop on the Party with the Photos
