Every December my mom always made a big to-do about Christmas cards. She would deliberate over the perfect few boxes (usually consisting of glitter) and cross check her list from the previous year to make sure no one was missed. She filled out the addresses, each line with alternating green and red ink, and used holiday stamps to send them on their way. When she received cards, she would hang each one neatly along all of the trim that arched the doorways between the rooms of our skinny downtown Indy house. I had a good run following in her footsteps until one year when I just kept putting it off. What used to be a holiday tradition that I kinda sorta happily anticipated had morphed into a big, overwhelming chore. I learned that the world kept spinning when my cards didn’t get sent out, and that was that. I considered sending post-Christmas cards this year, but that didn’t happen. The chances of anyone receiving St. Patrick’s greetings from me next week isn’t looking promising either.
Take my successes at mailing out holiday cheer and multiply them by a lot. The product would resemble the couple focused upon in this post. Jon & Ronda Burroughs have co-created their own Christmas cards every year of their marriage, and there’s been 38 of them. He pens the verse, she designs the artwork. And then they send them out…on time.
I was blessed to be gifted the honorary role of flower girl in their wedding on May 13, 1983 so, of course, spotting their card in Mom’s display is a special moment every year. This past year, seeing their card made me realize I should learn their “How They Met” story.
I met Mr. Burroughs when I was a kindergartener at Indianapolis Public School (IPS) #47. My kindergarten class was the one and only at the end of the 7th grade hallway in a junior high. (I never once considered how weird it was that this building hosted 5 & 6-year-olds while simultaneously serving hormonal teenagers until just now, but I swear I don’t make this stuff up.)
If we’ve met and it was post 1994, I realize it may be surprising to find out, but I was a very conscientious student in my early years. I was so diligent, in fact, that my kindergarten teacher often chose me to deliver the non-electronic daily attendance to the office. Maybe it was because I was trustworthy or maybe it was because I was one of those students that arrived every.single.day., but, regardless, this role served as my liaison to becoming an acquaintance with Mr. Burroughs.
Near-daily chats in the hallway with Mr. Burroughs + my mom’s all-balls-in efforts towards the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) resulted in me acting in a role in Mr. Burroughs’ annual Christmas play that year. I remember catching my feels during my lines on Opening Night. When I requested my gift from Santa…which was solely to spend time with my father…I promise you, real tears swelled up. I was in the moment! A year or so after, I found myself in Mr. Burroughs’ wedding.
I wish I could say 6-year-old Me was intuitive enough to ask Jon & Ronda how they met before I threw flower petals down their aisle, but I was not. Also, later when I came back to attend good ‘ol #47 for 7th & 8th grade, Mr. Burroughs was my literature teacher. How cool of a human would I have been to ask my teacher how he met his wife so many years ago? I’m sorry to say that my concern of hair spray beat out my inquisitive nature at 14, and so I’ve just learned the following story in the past year:
Jon was informed about a gathering about literature, or British things…he writes mysteries that remind me of Sherlock Holmes so I’ve convinced myself that the collection of humans that day were interested in a topic of this nature. When he arrived, his interest was piqued as he watched Ronda, with long-brown hair, get out of a car. Jon introduced himself and the two talked the rest of the day.
Jon remembers that Ronda was an artist for Cliffs Notes at the time of their meeting. He also remembers purposely being extra kind to a child in front of Ronda, just to find out later that she wasn’t really a ‘kid person’ and had no interest in ever having any of her own. Jon also learned that when he watched Ronda exit the car that morning, she was actually stepping out of her boyfriend’s car. I’m guessing that was the last day that car was ever in the picture.
Mr. Burroughs has now retired from teaching and has published a few books. He also writes stories as gifts to his bride, who is no doubt his biggest fan. When Jon spoke about his wife, it was completely obvious that he adores her now as much as he did on Day 1. Christmas cards the couple created over the past four years can be seen below. Because my mom throws nothing away, she has all of the others packed away in Ziploc bags in a wooden chest. On the random day momentum inspires my mom to go through over 3 decades of Christmas cards, I will add the Burroughs’ creations here. The petals pictured, also due to Mom’s hoarder habits, are from the rose Mr. Burroughs gave me on the night of the Christmas play. The flower reappeared on the random day my momentum inspired me to clean out a bucket of construction paper in my garage. After pondering if hoarding is a genetic trait, I sat to write this post.
