Just before Ma was admitted to the hospital for the last time, she called up her friend Emily and requested a lot of things. One of them was for Emily and me to plan a surprise birthday party for Pa. Emily told me about it after the funeral, and I said let's just have dinner at a restaurant with a small group of friends. Next thing I know she had already booked the restaurant, selected the menu, invited a bunch of friends, and said they would pay for the dinner. All we had to do was show up.
So that's what we did. Kit, Sven and I spent the day with Pa at a museum. When we got home, we told Pa we should just go out to dinner. When we got to the restaurant, the waiter showed us to a darkened room. Next thing you know, everyone was singing happy birthday. Pa was surprised. When we told him this was Ma's wish, he said she must have known she wouldn't be around much longer.
The dinner was at a Chinese restaurant. There were 33 of us. We had seafood soup, Peking duck, two kinds of vegetables, salt & pepper ribs, fried rice, steamed fish, and dessert. After eating, the friends gave Pa a card with $300 in it.
Now it's time to write thank you cards again.
No comments:
Post a Comment