It's Graduation Day!

I wanted to reflect back to Sarah's Graduation Day and fill everyone in on how that day went (the day of the fire).

Mom and Dad Burlton came in on that Saturday, June 5th, so that they could go to Sarah's Graduation on the 6th. It really meant a lot to Sarah that they drove down from Vermont.

So the family is sitting in our assigned row. Marty has finished his address to the Graduates and now Joseph is calling up the parents to hand out the diplomas.  As usual we will be handing them out in alphabetical order. {Side note: How is it that we "randomly" assigned the family rows, but the Adam's get the front row like it was assigned alphabetically. What's up with that :-) I just thought that was funny.}.

We are up to the Doyles when Andy askes me to step to the back of the church with him. I'm thinking "Is there something wrong with the sound system that he needs me? Doesn't he know that I need to be here to give Sarah her diploma?" I step out of the row as Laurie is thinking "Something really bad must have happened that Andy would call him out - maybe something happened to Everett's parents."

When I get to the back of the auditorium Andy tells me that, though not officially confirmed, our house is on fire. Um.. Ok. What do I do now? I have to wait for Sarah to get her diploma (we just got to the M's) - I can't interrupt the Graduation. Ok, I'll wait until it's time to go up for Sarah, walk down the aisle and pick up Laurie on the way to the stage. Ok, That works. No, that doesn't work.  I need to tell Aaron and Gen what's up because the rest of us need to leave as soon as Sarah gets her diploma and Sarah needs a ride home. I also don't want to tell Laurie about the fire until after we get off the stage.

So I'm going to wait until just before I need to go on stage, sit down with Laurie for just long enough to tell Aaron to give Sarah a ride home and then go on stage. Ok, that works.  I only have to wait through the M's and N (there are no O's) before Sarah goes up.  Then I remember. We have Mox, TWO Monza twins, TWO Muir twins, an N (sorry I forget his name) and then Sarah. The wait seems like eons.  Oh, and I need to lean over to Joseph as I go by him to tell him to pause after Sarah gets her diploma to give us time to get the family out of the auditorium.

So I execute the plan. But I forget to tell Joseph as I go by because I'm watching Sarah's slide show. Oh well.

Sarah gets her diploma, I pick up the rest of the family on the way down the aisle and head to the lobby.  There I tell the rest of the family that the house is on fire and we are heading home immediately.

Laurie and I have discussed this situation a number of times.  She would have wanted to know about the fire immediately, before she went on stage.  In the absense of not knowing she imagined all kinds of things way worse than a fire.  When I did finally get to tell her in the lobby her response was something like "Oh, is that all."  So I have promised  to Laurie that if we have this situation again I will tell her first.  If we are in the middle of the graduation of one of our kids and I find out that our house is on fire then I promise I'll tell her before we go on stage.

More to follow.