Wingman

Last week, the night before I left for New York, I got a call from my late cousin’s wife, Vicki. She is the guardian of my cousin April who has Down Syndrome. Vicki had organized a gathering to celebrate April’s 60th birthday, which is today, and wanted to invite me.

There wasn’t time to do any shopping while we were in New York so this morning was the first chance I had to pick up a present. I can’t say it was my most thoughtful effort, but I knew April would like anything from Bath and Body Works and anything that included a meal at a restaurant (accomplished by a gift card), so that’s what I pulled together. 

While in New York I called Blaine in the evenings after settling in for the night. During one of the calls I told him about the party and said he would be welcome if he wanted to go. And so today in a little white clapboard church in the country, Blaine met those I consider to be my immediate family.

We entered the church through a side door. We had just started down the stairs to the basement social hall when Sadie--

OK, a brief family tree might help here:

My cousin married Vicki. They had two kids, Jenny and Cody.

Jenny married Andrew and they have two boys, Will (preteen and eldest of the grandkids) and Wyatt.

Cody married Tessa and they have three girls, Sadie, Lainey and Olivia.

All right, so Sadie saw me come in. She stopped on a dime, gave me a quick wave and shouted to the far end of the room, “Mom, Marcia’s boyfriend is here!”

I looked up at Blaine. “Still want to go in?”

“I do.” He leaned down. “This could be fun.”

The little girls swarmed, as they sometimes do. Sadie wanted to tell me about their recent trip to KC to see the Cubs play the Royals (“We sent her a picture of Rizzo,” she explained to Blaine, “because that’s her favorite player.”). Lainey had new blue nail polish to show off. Olivia had things to say about her first week in kindergarten. While that bombardment was happening, Cody and Tessa came over. I interrupted the girls long enough to make introductions.

When we could get away, I took Blaine over to meet April. She was sitting at the head of one of the tables. I bent down to give her a hug and wish her a happy birthday. She isn’t very verbal but she has her moments, not all of them always welcome. I told her I had brought a friend that I wanted her to meet, and I introduced her to Blaine. He stepped forward and squatted down so he was at her height when he said hello. I melted a little bit at the thoughtfulness. He wished her a happy birthday. She was delighted by that, and by him. Frankly, she’s a tad man crazy, always has been. She held out her hand for a handshake, and he took it. “Excuse me,” she said in a sort of startling bark, her typical way of alerting us that she has something to say that we need to pay attention to. “You and her,” she gestured toward me. “Are you a couple?”

“Oh good grief,” I said, using one of her favorite phrases. She laughed her high octave mischievous laugh.

“Yes, we are,” Blaine answered confidentially.

Now she motioned for him to come closer but didn’t wait for him to do so. She stage whispered, “I love her,” she stabbed the air in my direction. Aww, I thought until she commanded, “Marry her.”

My first thought was Oh geez followed by Maybe I should have made her my wingman long ago.

“You just want to go to a wedding,” I interrupted. “You should move to Las Vegas. You could go to one of the chapels and watch people get married all day.”

She tilted her head back to look at me and smiled. “Where’s Vicki. Tell her that.”

“We’ll go find her.”

April let go of Blaine’s hand but opened her arms. Jenny had been standing off to the side, listening, and she stepped forward to remind April that hugging was only for family. Blaine leaned in anyway and gave her a quick hug, then stood up. April gave Jenny a cheeky look and pointed at Blaine. “He is family.”

Jenny glanced at me and laughed, then turned to Blaine, “Well, welcome to the family! Thanksgiving is at our house this year.”

Blaine and I went up to get a piece of cake. I skipped the cake when I saw there were two creamy jello concoctions. I filled a dessert plate with both. “I’ve turned that corner,” I explained, “where jello salads are the highlight of gatherings at a church.”

We ended up sitting down at another table. It was filled with April’s cousins from her mom’s side of the family. I got to know them a little bit when April’s mom was in the hospital for the final time. That’s too long of a story to tell. In a nutshell, I’d helped get April settled in a group home after her mom went into the hospital, and I looked after both of them as best I could for about a year. I kept all of the other nieces and nephews as informed as I could, and they’ve always been appreciative. They took Blaine through the whole story and gave me far more credit than I deserved.

In about the middle of it, my brother arrived, having just gotten off work. I introduced him to Blaine. After getting a plate of food, my brother came back and sat at the table with us. There was enough conversation for it to be pleasant.

We didn’t stay much longer because I was exhausted. I hadn’t had more than four hours sleep a night for four nights. It was catching up with me quickly.

Although meeting the family holds no significance in this case, it was still a relief to get it out of the way.