Throwback Thursday, My 30th Birthday
The other evening we got to talking about birthdays and the conversation led to the incredible surprise party Terry gave me for my thirtieth.
What kind of a guy throws you a surprise party….BEFORE the actual birthday surprise party…..so you’ll be truly surprised? Terry Bachynski ….that’s who!
The evening before my ‘big’ day we had a lovely surprise gathering at a restaurant for an intimate dinner with a few dear friends. That would have certainly been enough!
On my actual birthday though, Terry encouraged me to go out to lunch and shopping with our wonderful friend, Claudia.
While I was away, ‘the man’ started on his amazing, surprise event.
He constructed a tent-like structure from scratch which would eventually contain 1,000 balloons, each one filled with a note that said, “ It’s Laura’s 30th birthday. Please call and wish her a ‘Happy Birthday …” and he included our phone number.
Terry invited 80 people to this party. Wow! There were friends from our Badminton group, our neighbourhood, our Theatre 80 group, and our two small boys were there of course. Our oldest boy was SO excited. Soon , I arrived home and Terry met me and brought me into the back yard. I kid you not : I had absolutely NO idea that there were hoards of people back there and no idea that there was a party about to happen. Well done, Terry!
I remember when I exclaimed, ‘ I never knew I had this many friends!” , our friend, Drew said, “ We’re not friends, we’re extras”. ( This is a movie term for hired actors…ha ha)
Within minutes of the helium balloons flying into the beautiful, blue sky, the phone rang and it was someone in the neighbourhood who popped the balloon, read the note…..and CALLED! The calls came in one after the other and it was so so fun!
(Fun fact : the farthest away call came from “Pocahontas, Iowa” . Dwane Rude came home for lunch and he said to his wife,”Margaret, when I was out tilling the field I saw something out of place. I can’t stop thinking about a balloon I saw on the ground and you know what? I’m going to go back and get it! “ That was a few days after the party. We had a great chat and we kept in touch through Christmas cards for years and years! )
But as if that balloon experience wasn’t enough….then Terry said it was now time to move to the front yard for another surprise!
What happened next was crazy! I looked out and our whole street was filled with neighbours lining the sidewalks. And we had only actually just moved into the house that week, so I was a little embarrassed and hoping we weren’t bothering anyone. But, apparently, everyone was well aware that a full marching band would be coming down the road soon.
I heard the music before I saw them and sure enough a huge band marched up to our home , some members holding up a large banner that said, ‘Happy Birthday, Laura!’. There was even ‘press’ there so I ended up having my photo in the paper!
I think everyone thought the band was pretty cool.
Next up : the big cake arrived in Terry’s hand. I had SO much fun seeing all of these wonderful friends and do you know that I am still in contact with most of these great folks to this day? I did notice upon close inspection of these old photos that three couples are no longer together but every person there that day is still alive!
Terry really gave me the most incredible celebration of this early milestone and I actually am tearing up remembering how special this day was and how much effort he put into it to make it perfect.
He also gave me a physical present too! I’d never had one of these types of things before but I had to open a big box …which held a smaller box (…and it was the box within a box within a box…)until I got down to the very tiniest box.
Inside I found the most beautiful ruby and diamond ring which I also have never taken off and still wear today.
Although I have never felt that I needed much to be happy, Terry always makes me feel special and loved every day. This day just happened to be particularly amazing and I’m still so very honoured and thankful.
P.S. When Terry was lifting the helium tank out of the back of our car, he threw his back out! He carried on bravely, in much pain, for the entire day without letting anyone know, least of all myself. To this day he has a bad back and that was the very start of it.