May 2, 2025 was the date Shelley decided to retire. She said she didn't want a party because "nobody would come." She expressed that dinner with me the night she retired was all she needed. She craved a Lobster Roll at Smack Shack. Despite that, I still arranged some surprises to celebrate the occasion.
First, I contacted Judith, her high school friend, with whom she has kept close contact her entire life. I verified she could make the trip from Kansas City to surprise her on Shelley's retirement day and meet us at Smack Shack.
I also reached out to Shelley's daughters, Allison and Leslie, regarding the idea of surprising her at the restaurant. This would be challenging since Allison has four young children and Leslie has three. Luckily, everything fell into place, and they booked flights to arrive at 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2.
With that plan in place, I organized a surprise gathering at the house on May 3 at noon. Judith is an outstanding baker, and she volunteered to make the cake. I was stressing over the food options when my friend Carolyn, who is the best at hosting social gatherings, offered to help. She said, "Londell, I love doing this when spending other people's money." So, we headed to Costco, and after spending $300, we were ready for her to prepare the food for Saturday.
Leslie and Allison would take Shelley for massages in the morning so I could prepare for the party. Shelley knew North Dakota State was playing St. Thomas in St. Paul at noon on Friday, so keeping the party last minute planning a secret was easy!
I also found out she had a work party at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30. They held it two days early because Wednesday is when most people are in the office. I reached out to Lana and Dada, her two closest friends at work, and asked them to help gather farewell videos for me to compile for her to see and keep as a keepsake. It was quite challenging to coordinate collecting the videos while managing Shelley's suspicion with a flurry of text messages during the process of creating the video.
I finished the video and arrived at Shelley's office at 1:30 p.m. When she returned from the restroom, she was surprised to see Dada (her co-worker) and I sitting there. She was even more surprised when I explained what we did and showed her the video. The video can be viewed here. Surprise, one accomplished!
The next surprise arrived on Friday. I had been running on fumes because my sleep was heavily disrupted by all the "white lies" I needed to tell Shelley to keep the surprises secret. On Friday, I attended the first of three games between North Dakota State and St. Thomas in St. Paul at noon. Shelley had to go to the office to return all the work items. However, she found it difficult to leave. I thought she would leave by 10:00 a.m., but it was closer to 1:30 p.m. before she could bring herself to go, one last time. She decided that a stroll through Fort Snelling State Park would be a perfect way to start her retreat.
 | | Goodbye, bagel at the office! |
|  | | Post retired in the park. |
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Since she took a 90-minute walk, I grabbed the last-minute supplies and got home, which allowed me to hide the party items.
Since I didn't want her best friend and daughters to meet at the same time at the restaurant and turn it into two separate surprises, I had Judith and her friend Tony arrive at our house at 4:30 p.m., and we planned to carpool to Smack Shack. When Judith arrived, I told Shelley it looked like another siding, roofing, or window salesman was coming to the door, and I didn't want to answer it. Shelley said to ignore it, but I told her they saw me.
Shelley was all revved up to tell them she was uninterested, and when she opened the door, she was speechless! Bingo, surprise, two went off without an issue! Shelley was in tears of joy. Did not expect that to happen.
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| Judith and Tony surprise Shelley |
The next issue is why a table for six was reserved when we arrived at Smack Shack. Shelley's Uncle Bill (Neil) contacted me earlier in the day about Saturday's party. Shelley might have seen my phone, so I covered the extra two seats by asking Bill and his wife, Pat, to join us for dinner. While Shelley did not yell at me, she expressed disappointment because she wanted to spend time with Judy. It was a perfect way to cover for the table of six.
We arrived and were seated at the table. Judith chose the seat I needed Shelley to sit in to hide Allison and Leslie's arrival. They all looked at me oddly when I arranged the seating, but they followed. When they arrived, Shelley was so excited. The video LINKED HERE says it all! Surprise three, achieved!
Once Shelley regained her composure, we enjoyed the company and dinner. After two hours, we would head home and have an outdoor fire, but the temperature was below 50 degrees. So, we stayed inside and queued up the second congratulation video I made with friends and family. The first video she saw on Wednesday featured only co-workers. I did need to leave three people out of the video she saw on Friday because they mentioned the party. They were added to the final video, which can be seen at this link. So far, three successful surprises and one more to go.
I arranged to take my sister to the airport on Saturday at 6:00 a.m., which gave me time to pick up last-minute supplies for the party. I got home around 8:30 and prepared breakfast for Shelley, Leslie, and Allison so they could get ready to leave. I was working with a very TIGHT schedule. I had less than 120 minutes to clean the house and prepare for the party! Luckily, Judith (who decided not to get a massage) and Tony helped out, or I would have failed. Judith can make things look much more presentable than a North Dakota farm boy (me).
We were all ready by noon, and people were arriving, but Shelley was not. She was taking her time and was 20 minutes late for the surprise. Unfortunately, it wasn't a perfect surprise event. Just as she stepped out of her car, her cousin pulled into his driveway. Since they rarely see each other, she sensed something was going on. Oh well, it was a lovely gathering that she thoroughly enjoyed. Shelley looked at me and asked if there were any more surprises. I apologized for all the misleading details to keep the surprises, but this was the last one!
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| The spread! |
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| Family members - rare to see all in the same room |
 | | The way we felt after it was over |
|  | | Closed Saturday with a fire |
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So, it was a success. I was exhausted! Setting up three huge surprises and keeping them a secret took more work over five weeks than I had expected. It finally happened once she joined me in the retirement world!
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