What would I do for Carol’s 50th birthday? It was __1__ that she didn't want a party, certainly
not a surprise party (that was an agreement at our marriage).
"How about a small dinner with __2__?" I asked.
"No," she said, “I hate being the center of __3__."
Still, the milestone had to be marked. I wasn’t going to let her get away with a Stouffer's frozen dinner
and a movie video, and this was all she said she wanted.
I thought and thought, and __4__ making my decision, I sent a letter to her friends, asking them
for photos, poems, and letters. "Carol doesn't __5__ a party in person…but I'm hoping to give her a
party in a book." I bought an album with a friend’s advice, and what I wanted __6__. For a few
minutes at the end of every workday, I would pull out the marking pens and make up the __7__,
Carol's.
Photos of her in junior high, pictures of us with the boys, original songs, notes, cards, and poems. It
made me __8__ for all the years we had had together. The __9__ was more than the album. It was
the friendship and love she had given to me and to our kids and to all her friends and family. You could
__10__ it on every page.
I wrapped it up and __11__ it home. "Happy birthday, sweetie," I said. "It's not a frozen dinner or
a video, but it's what you deserve." She cried. She doesn't __12__ like to cry, but I think she likes the
book. She's said so many times. And every time I remind her that putting it together was a gift to me. |
