By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
Do you know how hard it is to find ‘Happy 90th Birthday!’ napkins?
A ‘Happy 90th Birthday!’ banner?
I do.
A few weeks ago, we threw a surprise 90th birthday party for my father. 90! He was born at the height of the Great Depression when the unemployment rate was a tick under 25 percent. He’s lived through the administration of 15 presidents, Pearl Harbor, Elvis, the birth of the internet, and a whole lot more.
I usually take him to dinner on his birthday but hitting 90 seemed deserving of something more – much more. So, with help from my fiancée’ (I was way over my head), plans were made.
There would be a sit-down dinner (do you know how hard it is to find a place to cater a sit-down dinner?), a band, and a dance floor, all inside a really nice venue. Pops belongs to a dance group which dips and twirls and swings at this place every Thursday night, so we knew he and his friends would feel right at home.
Dad often mentions that a not-so-happy part of living this long is that a lot of his friends are gone. But on this night, 60 of them – virtually everyone who was invited – was there to yell “Surprise!”
But the night’s highlight would be my dad seeing his daughter, who had not been here in more than 20 years. She and her husband flew in from California under a cloud of secrecy.
We hired a professional photographer. I will call him Jeremy because that’s his name. And while Jeremy was being paid for a couple of hours’ work, I told him he was really there to get one shot – the money shot. That would be my dad’s expression when he saw his daughter. There could not be any excuses.
I gave Jeremy freedom to position my dad’s daughter wherever necessary to get the shot.
Pops walked through the doors and was stunned, greeted by so many friends and family. As he made his way through the crowd, I was Jeremy’s one-man security team, moving away anyone who threatened to come between Jeremy, my dad, and his daughter.
As Pops turned the corner, Jeremy’s camera began making a long series of clicking sounds. It was the moment, as my dad’s very sharp brain began processing that his daughter was hugging him. Surely Jeremy had nailed THE shot.
As someone with decades of professional videography experience, I can promise you nothing is certain. You think you got “The Shot,” but you never really know until you go back and look at the video. During my younger TV days, the late legend Bob Griffin sent me to shoot a playoff football game in Haynesville.
Not a Week 3 game – a playoff game. I was happy with what I saw in my viewfinder. But that happiness turned to sickness when I began editing highlights. Everything – and I mean everything – was orange, as if an atomic cloud had hovered over the tiny north Louisiana town. I had forgotten to white balance, a simple procedure which makes colors look like they’re supposed to look.
Fortunately, Jeremy had a much better evening than I did on that cold Friday night years ago. He absolutely nailed THE shot. I will have that picture forever – not just in a link to Jeremy’s website, but in my head. My 90-year-old father, who doesn’t look a day over 65 (OK, maybe 70), shocked beyond belief that he was face-to-face with his daughter.
My Pops is an optimistic soul. He just bought an eight-year extended warranty on his car, and a five-year warranty on his new washing machine. But reality says my dad is walking down the 18th fairway of life. Only God knows if it’s a long Par 5, or a short Par 4.
Who knows if he will see his daughter again?
I certainly don’t. But I do know him seeing her a few weeks ago meant the world to him.
And I have the picture to prove it.
Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com