A Couple Memories of Debbie

With Alicia’s wedding coming up this weekend I was remembering Debbie with our children.  I’ve been working on my toast for the wedding and I didn’t have time to write.  But I found something I had written about Debbie earlier, so I thought I would share a couple memories with you.
 
We were in church one Sunday when our son, Andrew, was little.  Debbie was holding Andrew while she and I talked with some friends.  Our daughter, Alicia, stood patiently waiting for us to finish.  Suddenly Debbie realized she couldn’t see one of our kids and her mother instinct kicked into high gear. 
 
“Where’s Andrew?” she said in an almost panicked voice as she turned and looked left and right trying to find him.  I had an initial moment of panic based on Debbie’s voice, but it passed as I knew where he was.
 
Alicia came to her rescue, “Mom, you’re holding him.”
 
A funny little story, always a bit embarrassing for Debbie.  It does illustrate her mother instinct.  If something was wrong with one of her kids she would suddenly step into high gear. 
 
The most panicked and flustered I ever saw Debbie was the time she thought Alicia was missing.  Alicia had been invited to a concert at the Xcel Center with two girls from the Waldorf School and the parents of one of them.  I dropped her off in St. Paul across the street from the arena and went home.  A couple hours later we got a call from her friend’s parents.  It was intermission at the concert and they were wondering why Alicia hadn’t come and there was no answer on her cell phone.  Debbie went into panic mode assuming the worst.
 
I didn’t hear the full conversation because I went downstairs to get my cell phone to see if there were any messages on that.  When I picked up the phone downstairs it sounded like she must have been pretty intense.  As she was with me about how could I just drop her off and drive away without waiting until she had got into the arena.  She calmed down a bit when I explained how Alicia had gotten out of the car at the corner where I stopped at the light and to wait for her to get into the arena would have blocked traffic. 
 
At one point, I tried to comfort her.  A hand on the shoulder and saying, “it will turn out alright.”  But she didn’t want to be comforted and shook me off.  We ended up getting in the car and driving around downtown St. Paul looking for her.  Then going to the arena where we asked them to make an announcement for Alicia to contact an usher if she was there.  They said they would, but not until the end of the show.  That set me off and I went in quest of a higher up to make an announcement earlier.  “No,” the performer wouldn’t let them I was told. 
 
Further argument became moot as the concert ended.  They made an announcement.  A bit later they told us that Alicia had been found.  She had gone to the wrong entrance and waited for her friends.  After a while she realized there was a problem.  But her cell phone battery was dead.  As she stood there trying to figure out what to do someone offered her an extra ticket so she could go in and look for her friends.  So, Alicia went in and watched the show. 
 
After the show, she didn’t hear the announcement.  But she was looking lost, so an usher asked her if she was Alicia Hillar.  When she said yes the usher brought her to us. 
 
Debbie was a tiger when it came to defending her kids. 
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