Griffin Speaks

A Birthday Surprise

On September 7th, 2002, my brother Napoleon Winston Griffin, a North Carolina real estate developer and his beautiful wife, Jane Burrell-Griffin, a speech pathologist hosted a surprise birthday party for my father, Dr. Melvin Julius Griffin Sr. It was one of the most beautiful and lavish parties I had ever attended. My father was completely surprised.

A few weeks before the main event my brother Melvin Jr. contacted my father’s friends and family from around the country. He invited them to my father’s surprise 72nd, birthday party. Almost everyone accepted the invitation and attended the event.

My father thought that he was driving my brother, Melvin Jr. to a high school reunion in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The two of them would stop over and spend the night at my brother, Napoleon’s estate in Louisburg, North Carolina the day before the reunion. Melvin Jr. convinced my father to spend the night at his home in Carriage Hills on Friday, September 6th, since they would be leaving for North Carolina at 3am the following morning. What my father didn’t know is that my mother would be leaving for North Carolina with my family and me at 2am that same morning.

I took my Jeff Session’s campaign sticker off the back of my Lincoln Navigator so just in case they passed us on the road my father would not easily recognize my vehicle. Fortunately they never caught up with us. When my father travels he stops every 100 miles.

We arrived at my brother and his wife’s estate precisely at 2pm. I am always amazed when I see it. There it was two and half miles outside Louisburg, North Carolina an eleven thousand five hundred square foot mansion sitting on six hundred and fifty-one acres of beautiful land. As always his RV is clearly sitting next to the barn. It seemed as though it would take us forever to travel down his two thousand-foot driveway. When we arrived at the end of the driveway my brother came out of the house looking like J.R. Ewing from the television series Dallas.

Napoleon quickly directed us to park behind the house where sixty other vehicles had been parked completely out of sight of anyone approaching from the front of the house. After we parked we entered the house and joined many of my father’s friends and family members. There sitting in the Banquet room on the west side of the house was: Uncle Horace and his wife, Dot; Uncle John Jr. and his wife, Tina; Aunt Bobby, Aunt Hazel, my father’s favorite sister, cousin Peggy Joe and her husband, Spence, cousin Mussette and her husband Calvin; cousin Celestine, my brother’s mother-in-law Mrs. Burrell; my parents bestfriends, Ernest and Evelyn Jones and several other close friends and family. A few minutes later we were joined in the room with my four nephews, Winston, Julius, Alexander and William. His girlfriend a Beyoncee twin accompanied Alexander.

The moment arrived when my father, brother, Melvin Jr. and one of his sons, Melvin III entered the house. My father opened the door to the banquet room where my mom was standing in the middle of the room. Once he realized that this was a party for him he cried for fifteen minutes. He was so surprised and happy. It was worth every mile that I had driven.

My brother and his wife spared no expense. They had the food catered from a local restaurant. It was some of the best food I had ever eaten. We sang happy birthday to my father and allowed anyone that wanted to speak an opportunity to do so. I heard some of the most moving testimonies about my dad. My sister-in-law told how she loved being a part of our family for twenty-nine years. I was very touched. I told my story about KAMU and my father.

We partied for several hours then everyone returned to his or her respective destinations. My family spent the night and toured my brother’s properties the following morning. My kids love visiting Uncle Pole and Aunt Jane. They say that they enjoy seeing how the rich side of the family live.

We arrived back in Montgomery late Sunday night. I entered my humble home, looked around and said, “I still love this house”. “THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE YOUR OWN!”

Someone told the grapevine that Attorney Gwen Kennedy just got married. Congratulations to one of my favorite people!

Greg Griffin is a freelance writer. You can read his previous articles by logging on to his web page at www.greggriffin.com