Better late than never

One day in the spring of last year, when Mrs. RWP's 90th birthday was about three months away, I remembered that when her father turned 80 back in 1975 his son had arranged for the then-President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, to send written birthday greetings. We didn't bother to do something similar on Mrs. RWP's 80th birthday because she is a staunch Republican and the occupant of the White House at the time was a Democrat. But now that a Republican occupies the office I did a little investigating and learned that the practice of sending presidential greetings to older Americans at significant milestones in their lives is still being observed.

So I jumped through a few hoops took the necessary steps to learn how the process worked. I contacted our Congressional Representative's office with the information needed for similar greetings to be sent to Mrs. RWP (the lovely Ellie) from our current president, Donald J. Trump. The only caveat in the process was a warning to be sure to send the information at least a month to six weeks in advance of the event. Since Mrs. RWP (the lovely Ellie) would be observing her birthday towards the end of July, I provided the information in May. I told no one so that everyone would be surprised.

Mrs. RWP's birthday came and went. The whole family gathered for pictures in our back yard (British, garden):

...but no letter arrived. I thought perhaps it would be just a little late, hoping it would come shortly. I waited. And waited. And waited some more.

No letter ever came. I was very disappointed but didn't share my disappointment with anyone. After 2025 turned into 2026, however, I finally mentioned to my wife about a week ago what I had done and expressed regret that the surprise for her birthday had never materialized (British, materialised).

Lo, and behold>! (as comedian Brother Dave Gardner used to say), today I was the one who got the surprise.

The letter arrived, nearly six months after Ellie's birthday.

It contained both Donald Trump's and Melania Trump's signatures, though they are indecipherable.

Better late than never, although I am tempted to say better never than this late.

At least it did finally arrive.

This is my third post of 2026 and the 2,319th since the blog began on September 28, 2007.