As the door jingled shut, I heard my wonderful wife of 50 years talking to our oldest daughter, Kennedy, about tonight.
"Thank you for coming once again, but how did you manage to get all four of you to come? I thought your brother SJ had a meeting in Washington?" My wife Sarah said.
She was wearing her favorite flowered dress that she only wore to Church or special occasions. As she turned, the sun hit her in just the right angle, making her features look 10 years younger. I couldn't believe I had been married to such a wonderful woman for 50 years. It seems like just yesterday I was sneaking glances at her at school, hoping she would look my way.
All of a sudden I felt a tug at my pant leg and looked down to see my little granddaughter Chloe looking up at me.
"How is my little jellybean doing?" I said to her, making her laugh. Ever since she was two years old I called her jellybean. She had been at our annual Easter party and my wife and I had gotten a giant bag of jellybeans for the kids. About an hour into the party we went to grab them, but they had disappeared. After further investigation we found Chloe hiding in our room with the bag of jellybeans, just munching away.
"I'm good." She replied, giving me a toothy grin. As she said this, I felt a hand on my shoulder turning me around.
"Hey dad! Congratulations!" My son Travis said to me patting me on the back. He was our oldest son, as well as our first child, and he had grown up to be a fine young man. He has been a great father to Chloe and has brought up the family business even more than I could've done.
I was about to reply to him, when all of a sudden a nice young lady ushered us to a spot in the corner. "Have a good meal and rest of your night." She said to my family as she walked away to help another couple.
The table was huge, being able to fit my family of 10 together. My daughter Daniella sat by her two twins, Dustin and Grace, who as normal teenagers of 15 years old , sat on their phones. Next to them sat my youngest son SJ and his wife Jackie, who were talking to Travis, his wife Maddie, and Chloe. Cassidy's, our youngest daughter and child, chair stood empty. She was sampling cakes for her wedding this Summer and would be late. And next to me sat my beautiful wife, Sarah. I just couldn't stop staring at her. She caught my glance and rolled her eyes at me laughing.
"What are you looking at? I'm sure this wrinkled face isn't a sight you wanna see." She said laughing and squeezing my hand. Oh she had know idea how beautiful she was. I leaned over to give her a kiss, when all of a sudden I heard my grandson Dustin shout out at me. "Ew that's gross, please don't." He said giving me a disgusted look.
"Well I think it is romantic." Grace said shaking her head at her brother.
"It's disgusting that's what it is. I'm never getting a girlfriend, they only hold you down. I mean, I got baseball to think about." He said shaking his head. I smiled. I knew exactly what to say.
"Well Dustin, that's not entirely true."
He looked at me puzzled.
"What do you mean?"
"Have I ever told you guys the story of when me and your grandmother first really met each other? " I replied back, sending a glance towards my wife. She smiled, somehow knowing what I was going to say.
As the kids shook their heads, I started in on the story.
"It all started out on a hot day in March...."
