Читать книгу Precious Memories - Lynn Stannard - Страница 9

Magnificent stone buildings had stood proud and stately for generations. Freshly mown lawns, lush and green, extended out from the sidewalk. As we crossed the picturesque wooden bridge, we admired lovely flowering shrubs, in all their glory as they beautified the grounds. And we were surprised and amazed at the sign directly ahead.

When our oldest grandson completed college, my husband and I were invited to his graduation. We arrived the day before and were treated royally by our family. They had arranged lovely accommodations, dinner out, and a tasty, filling breakfast the next morning.

This was Graduation Day. The ceremony for Matt was to be early in the afternoon. Meanwhile, his friend Kate was being commissioned by ROTC. Her ceremony was in the morning. We were told it would be too early, so not to even try to get there. So we didn’t.

After breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we decided to drive to the campus and find our way around. We located a convenient place to park on a side street and then meandered along the sidewalks until we crossed that wooden bridge.

As we started to walk past the next building to the left, my husband spotted the sign in front that said “ROTC Commissioning.” We looked at each other. Dick asked, “Could it be?” There was nobody outside that we could ask. He tried the door. It opened, so we stepped into the foyer.

Peering through the window into the main room, we saw that it was filled with people. The ceremony was already in progress. We could see our daughter and her family sitting in the last row. Just in front of them a couple of seats were available, so we slipped in quietly.

Surprised, our daughter leaned forward to whisper to us, “Kate’s next!”

We watched in amazement as Kate stepped up to the platform, and, with a crisp salute, received her commission! Then she stepped off the stage and returned to her seat. It felt surreal! A couple of minutes later, and we would have been too late

Afterwards, we enjoyed the refreshments and visited with family. Kate was delighted that we had come. We were astounded and felt in awe at the absolutely perfect timing to see Kate’s commissioning.