Making K’s List
Making K’s List
We met our little friend K when she was 6 years old. The theme she chose for her birthday party that year was cats. She’s crazy about cats, and so is Dane. A few years later, I used her idea and had a cat-themed party for Dane’s 70th birthday.
Once, early in our acquaintance, when her mom was in a meeting, Dane picked K up from her home, then came and got me. It was Dane’s first time driving with a young person alone, and they didn’t talk at all until I got in the car. Then K became a chatterbox, telling us tales about her family that they probably preferred to keep private!
That evening, we took K to a church in Viroqua that was hosting a Mexican dinner. Once we got our food and were settled at a table, we started playing Cat Bingo, a favorite for both Dane and K. She watched over Dane, since he sometimes doesn’t see a match or is too slow for her quick, young mind!
A few years ago, K’s mom called to tell us about a card K had made at Bible camp. She had to list the people in her life whom she loved and felt grateful for. Dane and I made the list! We were last, after her family, as it should be, but there we were. We’ve never forgotten this, as it touched both our hearts deeply.
K loves Goldfish—the kind you eat. When she was in a production of The Little Mermaid at the Temple Theatre, we brought her a congratulatory bag of Goldfish instead of flowers. K also likes hamsters—the fuzzy kind—, but hers got out of its cage and . . . well, she likes cats too, and that didn’t end well for the hamster. For her birthday that year, after getting the okay from her parents, we gave K a new hamster.
We regularly have Thanksgiving dinner with her family, and for a while, Dane and I tried to think of games K would enjoy. Once we taped buckets to our bike helmets and brought along a bunch of ping-pong balls. The object was for players to toss the balls into the buckets, which was harder than it sounds. Our heads kept moving like those bobblehead animals you see in cars. Balls were bouncing off our heads and all over the room.
The following year, we brought over the ping-pong balls again, along with a muffin tin. When dinner was over, and the long wooden table had been cleared, we set the muffin tin at one end and had two people stand at the other. They’d bounce the balls down the table with the hope of landing them in the tin, trying to outdo each other. Everyone played—K’s sisters, her uncle, cousins, and even her grandpa had a go at it. I’m not sure who won, but it was a lively game with lots of friendly competition.
To this day, a highlight of Thanksgiving with K and her family is the creative place cards K makes. We’ve saved them all. Our favorites so far are empty toilet paper rolls made into turkeys that look like us: two old turkeys!
We’ve played Cat Bingo at K’s home with her sisters, mom, and aunt. Over the years, we’ve also attended K’s birthday parties, family dinners, and her school plays and concerts. We love them all and try not to miss any. Now, when K has an event, we like to tease each other, “We need to go so we don’t get taken off K’s list!”
It’s been an honor and a pleasure to watch K grow up for the past several years. Just the other day, she was the narrator for her church’s Christmas play, no longer one of the actors. In her red dress and black boots, she looked beautiful and mature and spoke clearly. Last night, we attended her Christmas concert, where she played the clarinet and also sang with the choir. We shook our heads and wondered where those six years of knowing her had gone.
It dawned on us, now that K is 12 years old, that we’ve known her for half her life! We both feel so proud of what a wonderful young gal she’s become.
We no longer think of K as our “little” friend. From now on, she’ll just be K, and we hope to be forever on her list.
