Surprise!

My freshman year in college I surprised my mother with a visit on her birthday, and she's never forgotten it! A friend drove me from Tuscaloosa to Mama's office (no car for me that year...or the next year, but that issue is neither here nor there for this story!). When Mama turned around and saw me standing there, she was so surprised that she started crying and hugging me, and I'm sure there were some, "The Lord! What are you doing here?!"'s shouted from our girl from Tennessee!

My surprise visit only lasted for a few minutes, but every year since then Mama has made a mention of "the time Rebecca surprised me on my birthday". As her October 22nd birthday approached this year, she and I both teased each other with mock sincerity: Mama would say things like, "I can't wait until you surprise me from New York for my birthday!" and I even went as far as to have her check the front door on her birthday, to see if "her Beta" was standing there! Now before you accuse me of being mean and heartless, I did all this teasing with a clear conscience, knowing I would be home to surprise her...just two weeks later!



Hiding behind the bushes while I wait on Daddy to come up the walk to video the surprise!


"What are you doing here?!" Tears. Hands to face. Mama reacting just how Ansley predicted she would!


For the rest of the afternoon, Mama followed me around, made me eat food, and called her friends to say, "Guess who came home?!" During her frenzy she uttered my favorite new Mama quote, "Lordy mercy, I need to take a pill!" Ha ha ha! Mama, you are so cute!