I’d like to tell a love story. After all we’re at a wedding, right?
This love story starts in 1995, when we moved to a new house on a full-acre lot. The house itself was surrounded by mature silver maples while the rest of the lot was a vast lawn. All I could think about the next spring was, “How am I going mow all this grass?”
 |
| Hmm, those pants might be a little tight? |
“I wouldn’t worry so much about the grass, honey,” Mona told me. “Did you see the little forest of maple seedlings you’ve got growing in the gutters?” And sure enough, the gutters were completely stuffed with decomposing helicopter seeds, some of which had sprouted and were standing almost a foot tall. As I cleaned the gutters, I was inspired to plant a dozen of the seedlings in the corner of the lot. Planted in a half circle, I thought, I would bend the seedlings as they grew to create a natural arched enclosure – a gazebo made of Silver Maples. Wouldn’t that be cool?
 |
| Rehearsal dinner at the Athena |
While I discovered Silver Maples are not well suited for topiaries, over the next fifteen years the trees grew bushy and dense anyway. When we hung a large hammock between two tree trunks, it was the perfect spot for an afternoon nap. Really magical.
So magical, I once remarked to Matt that if he ever wanted a girl to fall in love with him, all he needed to do was invite her for a swing in the hammock.
So let’s skip forward -- it’s the spring of Matt’s senior year at the University of Illinois. “I-L-L!”
[Wait for response: “INI”]
 |
| A Field Museum reception |
So now it’s the spring of Matt’s senior year and we realize we’ve never been to Mom’s Weekend. We’d attended dozens of football games to watch Matt and Lauren in the Matching Illini. I’d danced on the field at half-time on Dad’s Day. Imagine 300 band dads line dancing, it’s a disaster. I discovered my performance improved if I skipped practice.
But we never attended Mom’s Weekend. Probably because the local hotels jack up the rates, $300/night with a two-night minimum. So despite the early April weather, we decided to tent camp at a local RV park. D&W RV Park just off the Market Street exit. It’s a bargain at $25/night, but the tent sites are too close to the interstate and too far from the bathroom. You may have noticed this place as you drove by on 57. It’s the one with the tent campers peeing behind the dumpster.
When we arrive, the party is in full swing. As we look for a place to sit, this attractive girl appears. She is quite helpful. Drags over some chairs. Makes sure we are comfortable. Her name is Jordan. Really nice.
 |
| The sisters |
As Matt’s entry into the Engineering Open House, he submitted “Exploring the Versatility of Arduino: Beer Pong Robot and VU Meter Table.” Matt had designed and built an 8x4 foot beer pong table illuminated by music activated lights embedded in the table surface. And at one end of the table was a robotic arm that could neatly arc a ping pong ball into a beer cup with deadly accuracy. Scholarship aside, I think it just an excuse to build the coolest beer pong table on campus and we wanted to play.
 |
| The proud parents |
As we walked to Matt’s place to play beer pong on Matt’s custom Robotic Computerized Light Show Beer Pong table, I ask Mona, “Did you notice how nice Jordan was to us? Do you think Matt and Jordan are a thing?”
“No! What are you talking about! She was just being polite,” Mona responded.
 |
| These two clean up nicely |
Many of you think that dads are clueless to matters of the heart. All dads care about is lawn mowing and halftime dancing, but you would be wrong. Recently, when I recounted our first meeting to Matt and Jordan, they both denied they were even considering dating at the time. Which means I was the first person to recognize they would start dating.
When Jordan eventually came to our house for a visit, the first thing she did was give our dog, Milkshake, the equivalent of a Swedish massage as an introduction. That’s when Milkshake fell in love with Jordan.
Late that evening I took Milkshake out in the yard. Despite the darkness, I guessed someone was in the silver maple gazebo because Milkshake headed over there with her tail wagging. I called the dog back. “Don’t break the spell, Milkshake, they’re falling in love.”
A couple summers later, Jordan joined us on a Grand Canyon backpacking trip. We hiked to the bottom of the canyon, explored trails the rangers only knew as rumors, searched for glow-in-the-dark scorpions and then climbed 5,000 feet to the rim. On the next to last day of the trip, we had day-hiked to a rather meager spring for lunch and I was holding forth with some park trivia -- the risks of uranium mining bla, bla, bla -- when Jordan excused herself by saying, “I’m going sit at the canyon edge so can I remember how wonderful this place is.” That’s when I fell in love with Jordan.
On another backpacking trip on Mount Rainier’s challenging Northern Loop trail, Lauren and Jordan fell in love. It happened after a day of very difficult hiking when Lauren and Jordan discussed, through a tent wall, the merits of serving protein with breakfast. This has been henceforth known as the “oatmeal moment.” Is Jordan laughing? Too soon?
Mona is not exactly sure when she fell in love with Jordan. It might have been during our traditional after-Christmas-dinner game of Pit when Jordan traded three wheat cards to Mona for three flax cards.
“Corner the market on Wheat!”
For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Wheat cards are worth 100 and Flax a mere 40.
 |
| Killing it |
But most likely, Mona fell in love with Jordan when Jordan joined her for a workout at the YMCA. Mona is a YMCA gym rat and gym rats love other gym rats.
So in honor of this love story and the Silver Maples that started it all, we are giving Matt and Jordan a Silver Maple seedling from our yard. It’s growing in our gutter right now.
So a toast to Matt and Jordan, may your love grow like a Silver Maple sending roots deep and branches tall in every season of your life together.
