Dymisha was driving, and I was enjoying my free afternoon with my good friend.  She kept driving down the road, past the houses, straight to the park entrance… and stopped.  I just looked at her, and wondered what in the world was she doing.  We were going out to eat!  She was smiling from ear to ear and pointed to this big sign right in front of us.  (I have never been one to notice the obvious.)

On the sign were big words that said, “Happy Birthday, Brenda!”  My feeble little mind could not wrap itself around what was going on.  There were all kinds of people milling around under the shelter, children running all over the place.  What was going on?

When Dymisha finally opened the door and got out, it kicked in.  A surprise party!!!  She had planned this super awesome surprise party for me with family and friends there.  I can’t remember the details now of what we did that day.  I’m sure we had food because that’s where we were headed.  All I remember is the love:  the smiling, happy, love.

And I still remember it.

She gave me a wonderful gift that day, one she had prepared beforehand and presented to me that day.  A gift I have kept for these past 30-some years.  A scrapbook filled with letters from my family and friends with pictures from the party added later.  A book that would never happen today in the age of texting and tweeting and emailing.

I found that book the other day as I was cleaning out a closet and sat down to look through it, again.  Occasionally throughout the years I would get it out and thumb through it, sometimes reading all the letters, but mostly looking at the pictures.  This particular day, I got out all the letters, everything that was in there, and decided to write about my friend, Dymisha, and the other great people who took time out of a busy day to come celebrate with me.

(to be continued)