During a recent repast with Nettie and her sister Pat, a leisurely walk down memory lane ensued. Back in the seventies and eighties, I shared office space with Pat. There were a few other small companies in the space as well. Pat ran an meeting planning company and I a photography studio. Pat was one of my clients. She had a young secretary working for her named Robin. Robin was a pretty girl in her late twenties. She was petite with long dark hair. One day she announced she was getting married. Everyone was very excited for her. She had met this man on a flight back from Europe and it was love at first sight. It wasn't till later that we discovered this man, named Elliot, was seventy-two years old. Suddenly everyone thought this marriage was a huge mistake. Elliot wasn't just older than Robin's parents, he was older than Robin's grandparents!

Sometime later Robin announced that Elliot would be visiting "The Roof." The Roof was the name of our shared office space on the top floor of an old Boston hotel. Well, everyone wanted to meet the seventy-two year old man who had swooped Robin off her feet. We also wanted to make sure he would take good care of her. We were a close-knit group up there on the roof.

As Elliot made his entrance, everyone dropped the projects they were working on and gathered around him. He looked really good for a man his age. I would have guessed he was in his fifties. He was handsome and well groomed. He had a full beard and hair that was combed straight back. He was a very nice man as well.

Nevertheless, over the next few months we all kept asking Robin, "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Unable to change her mind, we all went back to our lives. Robin left The Roof, got married and moved to France. The only news relayed later was that the couple had had two sons.

So now, twenty-eight years later, Pat tells us over dinner that she received a letter from Robin. Nettie and I look at each other with sadness and trepidation, because we know exactly what is coming.

Pat continued, "Robin writes the boys are both doing well and today we celebrated Elliot's hundredth birthday with a surprise party!"

You could have knocked Nettie and myself over with a hummingbird feather!