Thursday, December 29, 2005

The Lost Picture Part 2


Cathie was able to find Paul’s Top Gun class picture and called me a few days later, only to tell me of another stumbling block. She located his class picture on their wall, matted and framed with many other Top Gun class pictures, but the commander was convinced that taking it down might ruin the entire collection. So, he told her no.

My heart sunk! Cathie then went to the base photo experts to discuss the situation. She was concerned because many of the older class pictures were starting to turn color and there were no negatives earlier than 1990. Together they went to the commander and convinced him that not only would they not ruin the collection, if they didn’t take it down and scan the photos, they might actually lose it. The next week, she called me and said that she had put a CD in the mail for me---and an 8X10 print as well.

Paul was now getting home early from school during finals week and he was checking the mail every day. I was afraid this would ruin the surprise so I called our post office and enlisted my buddy Lennie to intercept the 2 packages before Paul got there. Two days later I called Lennie and they were there.

Since we were going to be gone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we opened our presents the day before. When I gave Paul the wrapped 8X10 photo, at first it didn’t seem to click with him. He had a puzzled look on his face when he unwrapped it, as if he was thinking, ‘Why is she giving me a picture of a bunch of guys?”

A few seconds later, I could see it sink in as his eyes filled with tears. He said he thought he would never see that picture again and it was the best present he’s ever received.

2 Comments:

Blogger Ronni said...

That is so cool! He is such a handsome guy! And I hope he knows how lucky he is to have a wife who loves him enough to go to such lengths to not only find something lost, but to give it to him in the best way possible. Congratulations on a job very well done!

1/1/06, 5:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wonderful story!

1/1/06, 9:53 PM  

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