For Van Belle's 60th Wedding Anniversary

My Dad wrote this for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. You need to know that they pronounce "Skip-Bo" like "Skip-boo". :)


A bunch of the kids were whooping it up at the old Van Belle estate.
Grandpa was shuffling a deck of cards and laughing aloud at fate.

And half of the kids still could not even count, but Grandpa was taking them all,
And watching his luck was his light of love, the beautiful Ethel Hall.

Then out of the blue, Danny yelled Skip-Bo, and the contest was fairly begun,
A hint of a smile as he played half his pile, while Grandpa had not played one.

And likewise Jonny and Heather and Ted, and Michael and Kathi and Doug,
And somebody’s grin said I think I can win, and some of the smiles were smug.

Grandma leaned near Grandpa’s good-side ear, and whispered—what? Nobody knew.
But the place went dead when their grandfather said, Now it’s time for the coup de grue.

And he played and he drew and the cards just flew and he played and he drew all the while
And it mattered not that he sometimes forgot to play from the top of his pile.

For his love, his muse, was whispering cues, and the table was coming alive
And you knew at a glance that the kids had no chance, as he drew yet another five.

…

Did you ever try in your mind’s own eye to imagine that long-ago day
When Ethel Hall was the belle of the ball and a soldier was heard to say,

“Lonz, this is the one; it is over and done. There will never be anyone sweeter.
There’s my future, my wife; there’s the rest of my life. Now let’s just go over and meet her.”

That magical force known as love ran its course, and it’s coursing still sixty years later.
Just as vibrant and strong as it was all along—every year, even, magically greater.

…

Now back to Skip-bo where the famed coup de grue has been given and Grandpa is grinning,
When you work as a pair, as he knows, it’s not fair, for you really can’t help but keep winning,

Which is what they both do, and not just in Skip-bo, but in life’s most important endeavor.
Here’s to love, here’s to fate, as we all celebrate, here’s to Grandma and Grandpa forever.