Conversation with My Wife (41)
“Next week on the twentieth of May / I proclaim Eliza Doolittle Day!”
It was our first May together as a married couple that I found out about Eliza Doolittle Day. Somehow it had escaped my list of required (or optional, or even known) holidays. But it filled a need I had. Our anniversary is in February, Deb’s birthday is in March, which means there is a long empty period where there is no occasion for sending flowers to my lady. Ha! May 20th comes around and flowers are delivered to her office*, wherever that has been. If the 20th is on a weekend, I go for the preceeding or following Monday; that way she gets to enjoy flowers at her desk all week.
ME: So why Eliza Doolittle Day? I mean, as a time to celebrate.
DEB: It was after my second divorce, and I was with Mom & Dad for a long weekend. I was pretty bummed, even though I was finally free of [husband #2] and I had found my own place and everything. We were watching My Fair Lady on the TV, and of course there’s the scene where the king proclaims Eliza Doolittle Day. I said, “That’s it! From now on, I’m celebrating Eliza Doolittle Day!” And then forgot about it, until Eliza Doolittle Day cards started showing up in my mailbox, all sent by family and instigated by Mom and Dad. Then another year, on Sunday I was going with them to their church on May 20th, and afterward Mom and Dad and some of our friends presented me with a cake that had “HAPPY ELIZA DOOLITTLE DAY!” on it. It was just a thing they picked to try to cheer me up. They were so wonderful about stuff like that. I don’t know how I would have made it through the bad times without them.
ME: Well, they had a wonderful daughter!
DEB: (leans over to kiss me): And a wonderful son-in-law!
*Except this year, because Royer’s Flowers, the local flower shop, after delivering directly to Deb’s office at Millersville University two or more times a year since 2003, decided to deliver to the Student Memorial Center (SMC) two blocks away. So I got to walk down, retrieve the flowers, and make the actual (already paid for) delivery myself. I complained, and was informed that all deliveries are always made to the SMC for “driver safety” and “at the school’s request.” (IOW, they screwed up and blamed it on the school.) In the future, if I’m going to have to make the delivery myself, I’ll stop at the local Giant Food or Weis and pay a third the cost.**
**Or maybe not! Deb dropped me a note:
Jackster, Royer’s just delivered a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a card that read: My sincere apologies your flower delivery on monday (sic) was not taken directly to your office. Jill Williams. The delivery note said go directly to the office, not the SMC.
Okay, Royer’s, apology accepted. (Bribing my wife with flowers will get you everywhere.)
