Celebrating The Man & His Life

When something happens to your man it affects you. Like the incident my husband Duane had with his heart on the Saturday before Christmas (See what happened here). Well, I wrote this article when we celebrated his birthday a year ago and thought I’d share it with you to remind you to celebrate your man…now.

This is Duane. We just celebrated his birthday with a surprise party. And boy was he surprised! (Stay with me, this is not just a feel good piece, I have an important point to make). I was able to locate some of his old buddies from years ago, one he hasn’t seen in 15 years. Our son, David, put together an awesome power-point/video ‘This is your Life, Dad’ presentation, and friends from the various ‘arenas’ of Duane’s life ‘roasted’ him. Although, most chose to talk about what Duane has meant to their lives.

We had to be pretty creative to pull this off because Duane doesn’t miss a thing! We started two weeks earlier by celebrating with our sons and their families, first with Johnny and Joi, Zack and Jesse at their home and then the following week at David and Jean’s with Micah and Tyler. (Did I tell you we have 4 beautiful grandsons – 4 babies in the last 5 years!)

Then I told Duane I had something special planned in San Francisco just for he and I, and that he was to meet me at 2:30 that day because I had to help out with something in the morning, and then we’d take off from there. So he was not expecting a thing other than what I had planned for the two of us.

When he arrived at the party he didn’t expect, and everyone yelled, “Surprise!” all he did was keep saying, “Oh, my gosh…oh, my gosh” as he saw everyone who had come. We had so much fun and those who were there still talk about it, both because of the fun of surprising him, and the impact David’s presentation and the comments by friends had on them personally.

It was also a very touching time. Even some of the men cried along with the women. Why? Well, I think because not only was it truly touching, but because men seldom are recognized for what their lives have meant to us…which is a very important value to men.

When was the last time you told your husband (or the other men in your life, your brother, father) the impact their life has had on you? How much you appreciate their contribution to your life? As a matter of fact, I think we need a new holiday just to tell those close to us while they’re still alive how much they mean to us (rather than waiting until their funeral to tell others).

One phrase that kept coming up from those who spoke about Duane (can I brag on him a little?) was that he is a man of honor, and faithfulness, and a model to young men who need to know what it means to be a man. I think you can see why the men were emotionally moved along with Duane.,,they would like to hear the same kind of genuinely heart-felt things not only said, but thought, about them as well.

So, why am I sharing all this with you? Because I want to encourage you to celebrate your man, now. Do something special for him in this regards. Don’t wait to celebrate his life.