‘Tis the birthday of Stephane Hall

I have three sisters in law. My brother is married to one of them. Her name is Mama Nay Nay. Another is Jessica, married to my brother in law, Bill. I’ve called her Jazz for a number of years now and can’t for the life of me remember why. Probably for no other reason than it annoys her. My other one is my wife’s sister Stephanie. I call her Stephane because on her first facebook page, that is how she spelled her name. That little nugget right there should tell you a bit about her. I mean, who misspells their own name.

She, like myself, has the misfortune of being born very close to Christmas. It’s not as big a deal to an adult, but as a kid, it really stunk. All of your presents came at one time of year and you waited twelve more months to get any again.

I have a thousand stories I could relate about Stephane. Like the one about her fiance moving into our house until they got married. It was the first and last time I’ve ever watched an NCAA championship basketball game. Thank you Roberto Santiago.

Or the time at college when we were having spirit week. Dr. Tom Williams thought her everyday hair style was her attempt at crazy hair day.

I could tell you about the time we were in her and Shannon’s parent’s house waiting to hear about their youngest sister Stacey who had just been in an auto accident. They both intuitively knew that the Lord had taken her in spite of my efforts to give hope. They were right.

One of the more hilarious times involved Shannon, Stephane, my brother and I in a little motor boat. We intended to just cruise around, but the heat got the best of us and we were all jumping out of the boat and climbing back in again. The repeated nature of this activity caused the boat to fill up with water. There was only four inches of the boat that could be seen above the water as we tried to cautiously make our way back to the launch. Every once in a while someone would shift their weight and it would cause a back corner to go under and take on a rush of water. This action resulted in screams of horror and rebuke to the one who had dared move. Eventually there was only an inch of boat visible. We all thought we were going to lose the vessel and started bailing with shoes. We did make it safely to the launch just in time for me to remember that I had glibly tossed my keys into the bottom of the boat. Thank the Lord they were still there once we finally bailed it out completely.

I have seen her at her craziest. I have seen her joyful. I have seen her worried. And I have seen her broken.

I have seen her love her husband and serve her children.

I have seen her be a great sister to my wife.

Happy birthday, Stephane.

There’s a clan up in Michigan that loves you.