Anniversary Celebration for My Parents

HandyGramps & HelpfulGrammy
June 1966

As I mentioned before, HandyGramps & HelpfulGrammy recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. Last night, their parish held a special Mass & dinner reception in their honor, as well as an early celebration of HandyGramps 30th diaconate anniversary. The celebration was wonderful & full of love. It was amazing to see how many people showed up to show their love & support for my parents' many years together.

HandyGramps preached the homily for the Mass & the readings for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time were perfect for their celebration. He talked about the many types of seeds that can be planted & tied it in w/ the seed that took root some 60 years ago when the two of them played together as children. I think it is so sweet that they shared an aunt & uncle, so they'd known each other for a long time. (They didn't officially date until after high school.)

My sister & I decided to write a tribute to our parents to read during the reception. We received a lot of laughs, as many of the guests could relate & had heard similar comments from their parents. The first part was a compilation of poems she had found that talked about things parents teach their children. It included things like:

My parents taught me RELIGION: You better pray that will come out of the carpet.

My parents taught me about TIME TRAVEL: You better shape up or I'll knock you into the middle of next week.

We followed the poem compilation w/ some things we personally learned from our parents:

The Value & Importance of Education

My Sister: They would not give the answer to our questions; we had to look them up in the dictionary or encyclopedia (this was way before the internet!)

Me: In second grade, I used to write my sentences w/ the words close together. To demonstrate how difficult this was for my teacher, Dad wrote a sentence w/ the words pushed together & asked me to read it.

Creative Discipline

My Sister: If you slam your bedroom door one too many times, it WILL be removed from its hinges for about a week!

Me: If you are asked where your sister is & you reply that you don’t know or care, you WILL be required to report her whereabouts every ½ hour for the rest of the day.

I remember one time I told Mom that I would NEVER tell my kids “No!” when I grew up. I’m sure my kids will tell you that is definitely not the case these days!

Household / Helpfulness

As we’ve gotten older & are running our own homes, we still ask for Mom & Dad’s assistance at times. It may be babysitting, picking up something from the store, running one of the grandkids somewhere, repairing or replacing household items (& learning a few “not-to-be-repeated” phrases in the process). I like to joke that when something needs fixed, we just call 1-800-CALLDAD. On my blog, I use code names to protect our identity! Because I’ve referred to Mom & Dad frequently, I felt they needed some names too. So, they became HelpfulGrammy & HandyGramps.

Closing:

Jesse Jackson once said "Children need your presence more than your presents." Mom & Dad surely exemplified that. Mom didn't work until we were both in school & even then, she was home by the time we got home. We took yearly vacations, had dinner as a family most every night, spent time w/ extended family on most weekends, played games, & laughed a LOT, right Mom?

Exchanging cake bites 45 years later...

Yes, they were very nice about it!

I put together a couple of collages for them also. One was for HandyGramps 30th diaconate anniversary. His actual anniversary isn't until January, but their parish wanted to combine the celebrations & thank him for his many years of service. And technically, he IS in his 30th year as a deacon, right?


The other collage was for both of them as a couple. It included b&w photos of them as children, early snapshots from the 70s & 80s as my sister & I were growing up, & more recent ones of all of us, grandkids included.


Overall, it was a wonderful evening celebrating two wonderful people! They deserved all the special treatment they received. I am proud to be their daughter & to be able to call them Mom & Dad. I am thankful for all the love, discipline, & guidance they've given me over the years.

Many Anniversary Blessings for you,
HandyGramps & HelpfulGrammy!
I love you both!