December 3rd has become my own personal D-Day. Starting around Thanksgiving I get a bit anxious and somewhat reserved. I begin to think about the day I was diagnosed with Cancer. It was two years ago now but it always seems like it was just yesterday. I have an extremely vivid memory of those few moments when my life changed.
This year on December 3rd I was taken to a whole different kind of D-Day. I worked a surreal event. It was a 70th Birthday Party for a former Navy Pilot. It was a seven course dinner for 200 with a 12 piece orchestra, five singers, 6 dancers, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator and a Bob Hope/Red Skelton/Jack Benny impersonator. The dinner portion of the event started with air raid sirens going off while a projection of Japanese bombers were flying overhead. It seemed just a little over the top
Most of my evening was spent wrangling the talent to make sure our portion of the night stayed on course. It was the end of the night that really blew me away. Four of the honoree's friends got up to speak about him and offer toasts. However, it was his wife who made me catch my breath. She brought together everyone who loved him, planned an event to rival most major fundraisers and all without his knowledge. Holding back tears she explained "I wanted to do this for him".
That simple statement made me think about how lucky I was to witness someone who wanted to give the love of her life more than he could ever imagine. It made me remember how lucky I was to be standing there two years after the worst day of my life with only a few fading scars because of all the people who wanted to do things for me.
