My father-in-law asked me last minute if I would help him pull off a surprise party for CharlesAnna, my mother-in-law, & of course, I was thrilled to help.
I immediately went to God in prayer for guidance.
I knew this was a special birthday. Her first birthday since her breast cancer battle. She is now cancer free!
& so, we wanted this celebration to be special, every detail.
Anyone who knows my mother-in-law knows that she is creative & talented!
She Paints furniture.
Decorates houses.
She sings.
She grew up dancing & has continued dancing/teaching dance in her adult years.
She is of course much more than all of these but these were the highlights that I decided to base my details off of.
Shane (my FIL) invited some of her old shag (beach dancing) buddies.
I used new paint cloths for table cloths & made arrangements on her old Annie Sloan paint cans (Annie Sloan chalk paint is where she got her start in painting furniture)
I dug out all of my splattered paint dishes to use.
Picked up locally grown flowers but also cut foliage from her property (grape vines & hydrangea)
I set up the sweetest little setup out on her barn venue back patio where the fireplace is. It had never been used for an event & it seemed fitting that hers was the first.
The arrangement on the fireplace is grapevine & hydrangea from her property.
We lit 47 candles in the fireplace even though she turned 46 (one extra for “room to grow” I was told)
& she blew them out later that evening.
I put paint swatches through a type writer & wrote out menus & special notes.
We served virgin pina coladas with little umbrellas as a nod to the beach music/beach dancing.
& there was a paint station with some of her chalk paints where guests could contribute to a painting that would be the backdrop to the “Shroud of Turin” that I will paint for them to hang in their new house.
I wrestled the rain all day while setting up. It was so wet. It rained on me while I cut grape vines & I desperately needed it to stop! The back patio area is not sheltered & the rain was going to ruin my set-up plans.
I prayed in the name of Jesus for the rain to calm & thought about when Jesus commanded the storm to be still as the disciples were freaking out.
39 And he woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Be silent!” And the wind abated and there was a great calm. 40 And he said to them, “Why are you fearful? Do you not yet have faith?” Mark 4:39-40
The rain soon stopped & the sun peeked through the clouds for a moment. I stood there letting the sun warm my sticky cold cheeks & just believed with my whole being.
The clouds soon covered the sun back but it didn’t waver my faith.
I began to hear the birds chirping & told myself that this was a sign that the rain would indeed not come back the rest of the night.
Tyler, Riley (my bro-in-law) & a few of Annas friends helped me take out all the furniture that I had planned to set up out on that patio. The concrete still wet & puddly.
They were reluctant & it made me feel uneasy, I’ll admit. But I tried to hold on to the what little faith I still had.
Riley spoke up still looking at his phone in hand & said, “Kortney, my weather app says 90% chance of rain”. Everyone began to try to talk me into bringing the setup into the barn. I didn’t want to be wrong about the rain but I just knew in my heart it would be okay. Then Shane called & said they would be arriving soon & I told him about the rain issue. He said “Kort, I wouldn’t take anything inside until you start seeing rain drops”. & it was all I needed to give me the confidence to stand my ground.
I told them all, that taking this stuff inside is lack of faith & that I prayed & believed. Riley said, “well…you have a 10% chance of being right” lol.
We lit the candles in the outdoor fireplace & it was all exactly as I had imagined. Peaceful. Thoughtful.
Very CharlesAnna.
Shane pulled right up to the back patio with Anna in the passenger seat with her hands over eyes, I was the only one poking my head out the back of the barn where they had arrived. I excitedly told the crowd that she was here & recorded her on my phone & watched in real time as she opened her eyes behind the passenger car window & could see the genuine surprised look on her face as she gazed upon the setup on the back patio.
She began to weep.
I suppose tears of joy.
But also, maybe tears of many emotions all wrapped into one. Tears always appear this way. Expressing the many feelings that pile up. To say happy or sad tears really don’t do the emotion justice.
It is rather an interesting thing, isn’t it? Tears.
Liquid exuding from our eyes.
I’ve never given much thought to it really, until just now…
Tears are indeed a mystery.
But then again, I suppose laughter is too.
A sort of jumbling of sounds bouncing out of us in an unlearned tune.
Everyone’s sounds different & looks different but we all know what it means. We all know how to do it.
Tears though.
Tears all flow the same. Tears well up in our vision for many reasons really.
Good, bad, happy, sad.
And so, tears appeared in that moment as a result of an overwhelming human emotion that gives no explanation & that doesn’t require one.
I walked over to her, to be in that moment with her in the passenger seat of her father’s minivan. Her father who fought many hard battles with cancer & who ultimately succumbed to the illness.
Her father who wrote & produced beach dancing music & who’s music we played that night & danced to. Her father that she misses daily, especially on days like this day.
This celebration was about so much more than a 46th birthday. It was a celebration of love. A celebration of community. A celebration of life, health, friendship, & faith.
This celebration was a lot of things to a lot of people.
It was a testimony of talents.
Cake making.
Event design.
Beach music dancing.
Beach music creating.
Singing.
It was a testimony of lives well lived & lives still living.
At the end of the night when everyone had gone home, I sent anna back out on the back patio to sit on the couch to open her cards & gifts in front of the last flames of her re-lit birthday candles.
Shane & her sat there alone as all of us kids went back in the barn & sang karaoke on the system her late uncle Allen set up for us.
I don’t know what they talked about or if they talked at all.
Maybe they just sat still in silence around the soft candle glow “fire” & let all the love from that evening soak into their hearts.
& maybe that was the 90% “soaking” Riley saw on the radar for that evening.
Warmly,
kortney sue
