The Luney Bin: H. Wade Minter

This is somewhat old news, but I hadn’t gotten around to writing about it.

A week ago, while we were in the throes of miscarriage, Holly announced that she was going through with her trip up to her folks’ house in Virginia as planned. She had it set up because of her high school class reunion meetings as planned, and had guilted me into going up with her (since I’d managed to get out of the last couple of trips). She was going to go up Thursday to visit, and I was to come up on Saturday.

Obviously, I thought she was nuts, and told her so (“You’re nuts.”) Her reply was “You don’t understand, I have to go.” Fine, do what you want.

Saturday comes, and I’m somewhat late getting out of town. When I called to tell her I was on my way, she said “Ok, well your dad is here.” That’s odd. What’s he doing? “Oh, he’s helping my dad cook a stew.” Ah. Well, Everett cooks up some stew every once in a while, and when you make kickass Brunswick Stew like he does, it’s an all-day affair to cook it up.

I get up there around 12:30. The house is pretty busy, with her parents, her sister, her sister’s boyfriend and his kid, Holly, Hayley, and my dad. I was fairly worn out from the adventures of the past week, so I went in and ate some stew. Holly suggested that I take a nap when Hayley napped, which I readily agreed to. We went down to sleep around 1:30 – me in Holly’s old room, and Hayley in her sister’s.

I slept off an on until around 3:30 or so. When I woke up, it was like the rapture had hit. The house was silent. I went around the house looking – Hayley was still in her room asleep, so I wasn’t completely alone. Finally, I hear some bumping around, and her mom shows up. I asked her where everyone was, and she said Holly and Jenny went to Victoria shopping, my dad went home, and Everett and the boyfriend went to take the stew to his workplace.

Hayley woke up soon after, so I played with her and waited for people to show back up. Frances put Hayley into a nice dress, saying Holly wanted her to wear it when she got up. Eventually, Frances’ cell phone rings. It’s Holly, and Frances says “What’s wrong?” Uh oh. “Do you want to talk to Wade?” I get on the phone and Holly informs me that she and Jenny suffered a flat tire coming home on the back road from Victoria. I ask her if she wants me to come out and fix the tire, and she says yes. She says they broke down near the Victoria golf course. So I gather up my stuff. Frances asks me if I want her and Hayley to come along, and of course I say “No.” I don’t need a two-year-old running around in the road while I’m fixing a flat.

I rush along the back roads of Lunenburg County until I get to the golf course. I see their car parked in the parking lot of the golf course, with Jenny sitting on the bumper. I get out and ask where Holly is. “She’s in the clubhouse resting.” Ok. I tell Jenny that she’s a curse on cars, and she agrees. I go into the clubhouse to get Holly.

Surprise!

Yes, it’s a surprise birthday party for me, pulled off perfectly. I had no clue whatsoever. So in the clubhouse are all the people who were at Holly’s house that day (minus Frances and Hayley, who are coming along behind me), plus my Mom and Bill, my Aunt Martha and Lynn, and my stepmom Lynn. Shortly thereafter, I’m joined by my college roomate Brock Owen from Richmond, another college buddy David Sirrine, his wife Heather, and their baby boy Robbie, coming from Roanoke, and my former NeTraverse co-worker Mark Turner, who made the trip up from Raleigh. Amazing.

(She apparently invited like 50 people, but many of them couldn’t make it because of previous commitments, lack of response to the invitation, or because they think I suck. )

Lots of “over the hill” balloons, a cake with a picture of Charlie Brown that says “You’re A Good Man, Wade Minter”, and a nice life-in-review scrapbook that Holly had finished up Friday night after she’d had the miscarriage earlier that day. And good food – the stew and BBQ that the dads were cooking up that morning was for the party.

It was great fun. I hadn’t seen Brock since his wedding in January, Mark in a couple of years, and David since I was working at Red Hat and went to a Linux installfest in Roanoke. It was great that they made it all the way out to middle-of-nowhere Victoria for my party. Having the family there was great. And Hayley had a good time running around playing with balloons.

So it was really a special time. I’m so lucky to have an amazing wife like Holly – she went through far more trouble that she needed to, on top of everything else that was swirling around us, and pulled it off perfectly. She told me “Just because I did this for you doesn’t mean you need to throw me a surprise party when I turn 30.” But that’s two and a half years away – I’ll have plenty of time to come up with something by then.

I don’t turn 30 until Tuesday, though, so I’m not old yet. For anyone wanting to send birthday wishes of a more physical variety, feel free to peek at the wishlist. And thanks to everyone again for a great day.