Retirement Surprise

My mom retired last Friday, July 1st after 37 years of working in Education. She started as a teacher and worked her way up to Assistant Principal, Principal and then finally for the last several years has been working in a position reporting directly to the Superintendent. She has had a wonderful career and had a hard time making the decision to hang up her hat and take a break. The road to retirement has been emotional for my mom and the send-off she was given by her colleagues was so touching to her and made such lasting memories.

In that same spirit, I decided that I wanted to surprise her on her very last day by showing up at her retirement dinner. Jeff and I moved things around and I worked with several people to ensure child care, a middle of the night hotel arrival and increased reservations at the restaurant. We managed to plan the entire thing without my mom ever getting wind of it.

As she arrived to the restaurant in Baton Rouge with my dad and my aunts and uncles, Jeff and I were sitting at their table. Her reaction to our surprise was priceless (not to mention my Dad's shock and awe as well). It went off without a hitch and we got to spend the entire weekend with them to kick off her new 'easy life'.

Congrats to my mom for such a huge accomplishment,  a great career and a chance to relax a little and enjoy a much needed break!