April Showers Bring Flowers!

I worked at George Fox University, in Oregon, for 12 years. For four of those years, I worked in an office located in a university-owned house that was across the street from the main campus. I had several work-study students who worked for me, and to some of them I played the role of mom-away-from-home.

One drizzly spring day - April 1st, as a matter of fact - I had two of my favorite students working with me, Wendy and Charlene. I was busy at the computer when a lady opened the front door and came in with a long, shiny gold box, with a white ribbon around it. "Is Linda here?" she asked. "That would be me!" I said, with what must have been a surprised look on my face. And she handed me the box, which held a dozen long-stemmed white roses.

As soon as the lady was out the door, Wendy and Charlene were at my desk wanting to see who the flowers were from. There was just a cryptic note on the card -- something about my secret admirer. I knew the roses had to be from Dan, although I didn't know why. But I just let Charlene and Wendy go on giggling and making up all sorts of stories about my "secret admirer."

We went back to the kitchen area, and Charlene found a vase for me. I filled the vase with water and began cutting the ends from the stems, and arranging the flowers and greenery in the vase. Then the front door opened again. It was the same lady, carrying another gold box! As if she'd never been there before, she asked again, "Is Linda here?" The girls began giggling again, and I was a little embarrassed. But I happily took the box, opened it, and found a dozen long-stemmed yellow roses inside.

After another round of teasing from the girls, over the second card from the secret admirer, we rounded up another vase. The first vase wasn't large enough to hold two dozen roses. Then Wendy said, "Hmmm. White roses, yellow roses . . . the red roses must be on the way!" And she was right. About five minutes later Guess Who was back, asking for "Linda." She was carrying a box of a dozen long-stemmed red roses from my secret admirer. The card, this time, said "Happy April Fool's Day."

Three dozen long-stemmed roses - I'd never before, nor have I ever after, been fooled so sweetly on April Fool's Day!

When Dan does something, he usually does it in a BIG way! I'll always remember that day, both for the romance of the roses (thank you, my "secret admirer"), and for the fun they brought to an otherwise humdrum, rainy day for my girls, Wendy and Charlene; and me.