One Super Surprise

I'm going to take you back about 16 years and all the way back east to VA, when a certain Barbershop Quartet was formed. It was known as: 66 West! The above picture isn't the original 4, but it is darn close. Not only is the picture close to the original group, they were also close and remain close to this day. Our families do as well. The lead left first (for work) and moved to CA. It was a sad day. But the remaining three insisted on staying together so they found another lead. 66 West carried on and our families celebrated together throughout the years. The quartet was annually invited to the Little League World Series to sing the National Anthem and was also regularly invited to sing it at the minors at our local team. I may or may not have downed two and half hot dogs while pregnant with my son at one of the games.

After 5 years, my family was the next to go. It was a bittersweet day as we left VA. I had become so close to friends in the area, and leaving our quartet family was hard as well. Thank goodness for Facebook which had literally just been born as we become reconnected with all of our friends that we had just left; including our quartet family. We were able to keep tabs with one another over the years and it is like we never parted ways.

Fast forward to the present and the original members contacted me wanting to surprise my husband for a weekend. For one, this would be easy as he lives a couple hours away. For the other two it is a cross county journey and no easy feat. It was sneaky talks in FB messenger among the three of us for several weeks. We had it all worked out and Rich was none the wiser. It was meticulously plotted. These sweet men flew across the country, while the other had been out of town and made special plans to fly in one day sooner so that they could come see their long time friend.  (Shout out to the wives who fully supported this effort!) 

Rich simply could not fathom that these two would fly across the country just to see him. And yet, that is exactly what they did.  Sadly, the original had an emergency-- his wife became terribly ill and ended up in the hospital so he was unable to be there personally. He did, however do a live video chat with us. He was sorely missed and we are all praying for his lovely wife. 

All in all it was an incredible day filled with laughter and singing and good times. I am so happy to have been a part of the planning. All I did was agree to the terms and conditions. It was a great surprise. 

What was the best surprise you ever pulled off?