Make Memories ... On Purpose

By Dave Balch Blogger

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Mother’s Day is this weekend and it always reminds me of something that a friend of mine did for his mother and mother-in-law. Actually, he did it for his entire family.

He and his wife and both of their mothers lived in Southern California. He arranged to fly everyone up to San Francisco, about an hour’s flight.

The entire party was met at the airport by a limousine and taken to the Top of the Mark which is a beautiful restaurant, atop the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill, which happens to have a breathtaking view of the city.

His brother-in-law lived about 30 miles from San Francisco, and he, his wife and child) were also picked up by a limousine and met the rest of the party at the restaurant.

Everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day brunch enjoying a fantastic view on a picture-perfect day, after which the limousines took the brother-in-law’s family home and everyone else back to the airport for the flight home.

There were corsages waiting in the limousines for all of the mothers involved.

The Southern California party consisted of my friend and his wife, his mother and father, her mother, her sister, his sister and her son.

To add to the fun, no one from Southern California knew where they were going, just that it was something special for Mother’s Day. They met at a local gas station and then had a procession to the airport, which shocked them all.

This was many years ago before current airport security, so no one had their ticket and had to follow my friend to the gate. In order to throw them off, he didn’t go to the correct gate but rather one that was near the correct gate.

When they announced a flight he would stand up as if that was the flight, then stretch loudly and sit back down. It sounds like great fun, don’t you think?

The stretch limousine that met them at the airport was another surprise.

Did I mention that no one knew that the brother-in-law would be there? When the second limousine pulled up to the hotel, there was a lot of screaming as his mother-in-law saw her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter -- a total surprise.

There was a lot of planning involved to get all of the timing just right, but everything went off without a hitch. Even the weather cooperated, providing the incredible view.

Why am I telling you all of this?

To illustrate how we can go out of our way to make memories that we can re-live over and over. Sure, this was a bit over the top and yes, it was expensive.

I’m certainly not suggesting that you have to do something this elaborate. He could have done much the same thing and stayed in Southern California.

You can’t always rely on memorable things happening to you by chance. There will always be some of those, but making your own memories, on purpose, is priceless.

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Edited by Jody Smith

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