 |
Making
things happen - with integrity. A weekly CyberMemo designed to keep you on task. Monday October 23, 2000 Volume II Number 43
|
FOCUS - First Love
The Yphantides (pronounced “efanteedees,” accent on the third syllable) family is well known in our region. The Greek name tips you off. It’s a close fun-loving God-fearing family. The Patriarch, George, is an American Patriot. He loves the U.S. of A. and the life he’s built and the opportunity his five children have to pursue excellence. Family gatherings are marked with an abundance of wonderful food, laughter and music. Lots of music. George tunes pianos.
Two of the four sons are married. A third was recently engaged. Each of the three tells a uniquely atypical engagement story.
When John, an attorney, proposed to Heather, a tennis pro, he took her to the beach. In the steady off shore breeze, he prepared to launch a kite. Heather stood in the shallow surf on the sand, her bare feet in the water. He handed her the end of a ball of string. John ran up the beach, unrolling a couple of hundred feet of line. From that distance, he called to Heather saying he needed to fix the line to the kite. “This is an odd way to fly a kite,” she thought. But she waited patiently.
He turned his back to her, reached into his pocked and pulled out the Ring. Carefully, he threaded the kite string through the band, and nervously tied the string to the kite. Turning to her, and smiling with that look of accomplishment in his eyes, he called, “Are you ready?” She replied, “Go for it!” She held the string tight. In the brisk wind, he tossed the kite into the air… it caught the breeze, and climbed skyward. As it rose, the diamond, feeling the tug of gravity, began its decent down two hundred feet of string, right towards Heather.
Heather giggled and watched the colorful kite dancing on the wind. Then she focused on the string… some kind of object was sliding down toward her and gaining speed. “What’s THAT…?” John, running back towards Heather, watched the string with a laser focus... his brother stood by, out of sight, with a metal detector just in case. But the plan was executed with perfection. The diamond ring slid from the top of the kite’s flight into the hands of John’s beloved. She squealed with delight, grasped the ring in disbelief and let go of the string. (The kite was never recovered – it flew away.)
And in the sunshine under a blue California sky with the waves pounding against the sandy beach, John dropped to his knee, and popped the question. Through tears of wonderment, Heather accepted.
* * * * * *
When time came for him to make his proposal, John’s brother Paul Yphantides made a trip to see some friends at the Wild Animal Park, which is associated with the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Paul has connections. His friends work at the exotic bird exhibit – where trained birds perform remarkable stunts in a tropical arena which seats hundreds in a South Sea setting. In a clandestine meeting backstage, Paul and his pals wrote the script.
Paul, a computer wizard, also has friends in the broadcast news business. He arranged for them to set up their cameras at the Bird Show and videotape the big event of the afternoon.
Eleni thought it was just another pleasant day to visit the Park. They roamed through the exhibits, in and out of the shops, rode the tram around the mock Serengeti Plain where lions and tigers and hippos and elephants and giraffes roam. “C’mon… we need to catch the Bird Show,” Paul said as he took Eleni by the hand into the arena.
“They are taping this show,” Eleni pointed to the cameras.
“Huh,” Paul nodded, like he didn’t know until Eleni mentioned it. She was clueless – Paul’s carefully choreographed plan was all coming together. She didn’t notice his clammy palms. They found a seat on a bench in the center of the crowd. Paul took a deep breath.
A trumpet fanfare announced the start of the show. Up-tempo stereo sound filled the outdoor arena, and four perky twenty-somethings, tanned and fit dressed in Safari shorts and bounding with enthusiasm welcomed the crowd who had, they said, come from all over the world and through microphones hidden somewhere on their person beamed with pride over the birds and the Park and the wonderful magical things that happened there every day.
And then the birds began to appear. Big birds. Wide wing spans. Soaring high to lofty towers to the left and then the right. And then swooping down over the audience, crossing paths, near misses, barely inches beyond reach, in a graceful sweeping movement, angling up into the sky, and then making a return trip across the bleachers. The parrots told jokes. The hawks pounced on their prey (stuffed animals). A great falcon perched on the padded forearm of his trainer looked over the crowd with a menacing stare.
Finally, Paul’s buddy, a Wild Animal Park veteran bird trainer, took center stage, and with an amplified voice asked, “Does anyone in the crowd have a twenty dollar bill?”
Paul reached for his wallet.
He handed a twenty to Eleni. She shook her head, “No…” She didn’t like the idea of all eyes on her. Paul was not sympathetic. “C’mon… it’ll be fun.” “OK,” she said, and did not notice Paul’s sigh of relief.
“Yes, there, that nice looking young woman in the yellow blouse,” the Master of Ceremonies was pointing from center stage up into the bleachers at Eleni. “I want you to stand where you are and hold that twenty-dollar bill up high so that everyone can see.”
Eleni smiled, stood to her feet and held the green bill up high. “That’s right,” said the MC. “Now hold steady… and don’t move,” he added. And then, out of nowhere, a great hawk swooped down, gliding over the crowd toward Eleni. She winced, instinct told her to duck for cover, but she stood tall, holding the bill high in the air, and the hawk snatched the bill cleanly from her hand and obediently delivered it to his trainer at center stage. Right on cue. The crowd exploded into a raucous cheer.
Eleni waved to her new fans.
The MC slipped the twenty into his pocket. The crowd booed. “Just kidding,” he said. And he pulled a bill out of the same pocket, and handed it to the bird. “Give it back to the pretty lady,” he told the great hawk.
Eleni, still standing, waited as the bird flew back, hovering over her just long enough to retrieve the bill from his claws. He flew away as Eleni took note – it was a single. A one dollar bill in exchange for her twenty. As she began to protest, word made its way through the crowd. The hawk was a thief. The MC a co-conspirator. The rumbling of accusing voices spread through the great arena. And Eleni opened the folded bill. Inside, she found a note.
“Will you marry me?”
And in that moment of shock, video cameras rolling, a stage crewmember in the aisle handed Paul a live mike. He dropped to his knee, and through the booming megawatt stereo arena sound system, so that every creature in the expansive Wild Animal Park could hear, he said, “Eleni I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life as your adoring husband. Will you marry me?”
And then he handed the mike to Eleni. A hush fell over the crowd.
“Yes!” she cried, wiping tears from her eyes.
And hundreds of tourists from all over the world jumped to their feet in uninhibited applause. A long standing ovation. The parrots laughed with glee. The macaws cawed. The seagulls flapped their wings. The eagle soared.
At the center of the scene, a young couple embraced and cried tears of happiness.
It became a story that would be told and retold… a story that would improve with every telling.
* * * * * *
John and Paul have a brother, Dr. Phil Yphantides, a physician, who flew from his home in San Diego to visit his girlfriend’s family. Betsy was scheduled to meet him at the terminal gate in Houston. From there, Phil would accompany Betsy to her hometown in Texas, where her entire extended family was waiting – all anxious to meet Phil. They’d all heard about the dashing young man she’d met in California.
Just before take-off in San Diego, Phil purchased two hundred and fifty long stem roses. This huge bundle of flowers he claimed as a carry-on.
After checking with the chief flight attendant, the plan was put in place.
About thirty minutes before touchdown in Houston, the flight attendant accompanied Phil to the front of the passenger cabin and took the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, please forgive the interruption. I want to introduce Dr. Phil Yphantides. He would like to ask a favor of you. I’ll let him explain.”
Heads popped up through the cabin as Phil took the mike.
“Uh…” Phil was uncharacteristically nervous. “Uh… good afternoon everyone.”
People nodded, and smiled. Curious… what this all about?
“You may have noticed… When I boarded the aircraft today, I had two-hundred and fifty long stem roses under my arm.” He paused. “There is a very special lady waiting for me at the gate in Houston. Her name is Betsy. When we get off the plane, I’m going to propose. You know, like I’m going to ask her to marry me.”
“Alright!” someone said. And pretty soon the whole cabin was nodding and smiling. Some applauded.
“I have an eight by ten photograph of Betsy so you all will recognized her. As you leave the plane, I’m asking that you each take a single rose. I’ll give it to you as you deplane. And then if you will, please hand the flower to her as you pass by.”
The passengers were beginning to get the picture. “Cool!” someone said.
“I’ll be the last one off the plane,” Phil said. “… and when I see her, I’m going to ask the big question.”
As Phil made his way back to his seat, people were high fiving him and then each other, shaking his hand, wishing him happiness and the very best.
The pilot landed the airplane, and pulled up to the terminal.
Betsy feared she might be late. She had trouble negotiating the traffic, and finding a parking space. But she was there, at the gate, on time, just as the planed pulled up to the ramp.
Paul stood just beside the cockpit’s open door; the Captain and the crew by now were all caught up in the excitement. The Flight Attendant held the photograph so everyone could see it, and Phil handed each a long stem rose.
The first one had the toughest assignment, but Betsy was easily recognizable. He said later, “Wow, I can understand why this young doctor is in love.”
As Betsy stood there, waiting for her boyfriend, a stranger handed her a long stem rose, and smiled warmly. “What’s this?” And before there was an answer, there was another rose. And then another. And another.
By the time Phil got off the plane, Betsy was nearly buried in red roses. None of the passengers proceeded to the baggage claim gate. They all wanted to witness the big moment.
Finally, Phil stood at the gate holding a rose. Their eyes met. Betsy was laughing and crying and feeling horribly conspicuous and shaking her head and passengers and airport employees and flight crews were standing around the terminal gate in anticipation. Phil handed her one final red rose, the terminal lobby was quiet, and he dropped to his knee and said, “Betsy, I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?”
As she nodded the affirmative, and then said “Yes,” the roses all fell to the floor as the two held each other tight, and the entire passenger list and crew of Flight 476 and a whole host of other passersby broke into cheers and whooping and applause.
The host Flight Attendant took the terminal microphone and announced “Dr. Phil Yphantides just got a YES!”
* * * * * * *
I wrote these three stories early Saturday morning. Each one is true. Mostly. It’s been my weekly ritual to write my LeaderFOCUS as the sun rises on Saturday for over a year now. But this weekend brought with it one of those serendipitous “coincidences.”
The phone rang late Saturday night. One more terrific and unanticipated story of “first love” came special delivery via long distance telephone.
* * * * * * *
Apparently, somewhere in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on a long hiking trail through the forest and along a mountain stream, up past the waterfall and through the meadow, our daughter Candy and one Jamie Ostrander stopped for a little picnic in the woods.
They found a perfect spot in Cade’s Cove.
Candy sat on a rock at the water’s edge. Jamie said, sit still. Candy said ok. And Jamie unlaced Candy’s hiking boots, pulled them off, and after them her woolen socks, and taking water from the stream, began to wash her feet.
That’s when Candy started to cry.
“Jesus said that if you really love someone, you will be willing to serve them… even wash their feet,” Jamie explained.
Candy couldn’t speak. She suspected that this just might be part of a much larger plan.
Then Jamie reached over into the backpack, and pulled out a package wrapped in silver, as a Christmas ornament… and he said, “I know Christmas is your favorite time of year… this year will be the best Christmas ever.” She opened the package, and inside she found “the most beautiful diamond ring I have ever seen in my life.” That’s what she told us on that late night call.
Jamie dropped to his knee in the cold water, and told Candy about how much he loves her and about how all his hopes and dreams and ambitions only make sense if she will be there by his side for the rest of his life and then he asked, “will you marry me?”
Well, our second daughter consented on that brisk Fall day at the water’s edge with drippy eyes and drippy feet up in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee not far from the place where Catherine Marshall’s Christy came of age. And the sound of her voice told Carolyn and me what every parent wants to hear. She is happy. It is right. It is good. She said yes.
When they appeared home at Pilgrim’s Rest from their Smoky Mountain journey into Jamie’s favorite place on Earth, Cade’s Cove, Jamie’s family was waiting with open arms and loving embrace. Tears and hugs and laughter. Candy found two dozen roses, a fresh change of clothes waiting in the guest room. And then they went off to an exclusive Knoxville bistro for a long and extravagant gourmet dinner in celebration of a day now inked in the history books. October 21, 2000.
“Mrs. Ostrander. Sounds pretty good,” I said as we ended our telephone conversation Saturday night. Candy giggled, then turned from the phone to Jamie standing by. “Dad just called me Mrs. Ostrander,” Candy reported. “Alright!” I heard him say.
“Not just yet, Ken,” Carolyn reminded me.
I guess it will be official next summer.
* * * * * * *
On this Monday morning, it’s good to be reminded of love’s beginnings. As time passes, layers of scheduling pressures and disappointments and routines and conflicts and distractions can fuzzy up those memories until, sadly, they are nearly forgotten.
Check with my friend George Yphantides. He and his good wife Bernice have become full participants in the American Dream. From humble beginnings, they have the legacy of five great children, all pursuing honorable careers; clever, fun, singing families who so far have presented them with three grandchildren. There will be more.
The circle of life.
Peel back those layers. Call up the memories. It’s not a contest… who is the cleverest. The most creative. What matters is those misty memories – your moment beside a mountain brook, or in the ocean breeze, or at the airport terminal, or the red rose, or the Christmas tree, or the eagle in flight, that moment when love gushed clean and pure as from an artesian well and the whole earth celebrated with you at the thought of the promise and the hope that was all attached to that moment you found a partner.
Relive it. It was real then. It can be real today, too.
PS – God bless Candy and Jamie.
© Copyright Kenneth E. Kemp 2000
Special Thanks to my good friend David Belcher, owner of Rhino Media Group and creator of WisdomGram
LeaderFOCUS is a service of Good Stewardship Associates
|
|