Dear Melissa,

01/04/01

 

Dear Melissa,

            In just three days, you will enter the latest chapter of your life as you end more than 25 years of single life and become Mrs. Bryan Turner.

            To say that your life will change dramatically is an understatement. Ask any married person.

            But, having watched you throughout two and a half decades, I have utmost confidence in your ability to adjust, accept and accommodate to the changes.

            Through those years, I have my favorite memories:

  • A telephone call on July 25, 1975 that you were born.  My first niece.
  • Being "The Godfather", an offer I could not refuse.
  • Your dark, curly "Friedli-hair" of infancy which became blonde, wild "Vosta-hair" of early childhood and then turned back again during adolescence.
  • Riding a stick pony at Grandma Carol's house.
  • The Barbie swimming pool you got for Christmas, filled with North Pole water which couldn't be thrown out for the longest time.
  • Junior wrestling cheerleader, mentored by Janie Decker.
  • Bleached blond bay bomber, water skiing at Johnson Lake.  Tanned, but peeling.  Quake at no wake!  The boys.
  • Your participation and leadership in The Insiders, the community drug-free youth group.
  • Early experiments in cooking which trashed your mother's kitchen, and later efforts which were successful and sumptuous.
  • Watching you play basketball, and feeling so sorry for you that "Friedli genes" do not include the skill of jumping.  Been there, done that.  Changed sports because of it.
  • United Singers. Worth every minute of practice for one performance.
  • The amazing, full-scale, lose-it-all-and-slide-uncontrollably-toward-the-bottom skiing wipe-out on Cranmer Trail at Winter Park.
  • Helping me buy my one and only pair of cowboy boots.
  • The way you would introduce me to the latest male in your life, saying, "This is my friend, ___________."  Then you would wait.  I could tell you wanted my approval.
  • Listening to you sing...around the house, at school, at camp, at Horizons UMC.  All those noisy, obnoxious musical toys of your childhood did their job.  You are at your best when you sing.  Trust me on that.
  • Graduation from high school.  Graduation from college.  Job.
  • Tough phone call one night.  Honesty.  Courage.  Commitment. Dedication.  Settling down, for real.  For yourself.
  • Brenna Kaye.  'Nuff said.  No, there will never be enough said

about her, or you, and how you handled everything.

            But the defining moment of our relationship had to be that first day

of elementary physical education, when I asked the First Grade class

you were part of, "Do you know who I am?", and the entire class responded, in unison, "UNCLE DAVE!". 

            Hmmmm.  We needed to work on that.  But in your ear-to-ear smile that day, I saw your pride in me. 

Over the years, I hope you recognized my pride in you, for who you are, what you accomplished, and who you are becoming.  You are becoming everything you want to be.

            "This is my friend, Bryan.  He is very special."

            You bet he is, my niece.  I see it in the way he treats you and the way you treat him. With just hours to go until you are married, remember yours is a commitment for a lifetime.

            And although Bryan now is "The Man" of your life, I will always be your "Unc".  His "Unc" too, I guess.  That makes me proud. 

            And, I approve.

            Love you.  Your Unc, Dave