Family helps man pull off coupe surprise
Wife gets her gift at Chelan car show
CHELAN, Wash. – Max Hand, of Oroville, says that after nearly 50 years of marriage, it’s important to have a few surprises left in your relationship.
Pat Hand says she knows her husband, and she would never have guessed he could pull off a shocker like the one he threw at her Saturday.
The couple went to the Fall in Chelan car show, and she never once suspected that he had anything to do with that 1948 Plymouth coupe lined up with all the other beautiful old cars.
Sure, it was the same model and the same baby-blue color as the one they drove to Coeur d’Alene on Dec. 30, 1958, to get married. There was the same winged emblem painted on it.
Indeed, the more she inspected this car, the more it reminded her of their first car. “ ‘I said, Oh my gosh, Max, Bonnie, you’ve got to see it. It’s just like ours!’ ” she recalls telling her husband and sister.
Then her son told her to check out the owner listed on the windshield.
When she saw her own name, she figured her husband spotted the car before she did and quickly arranged this little joke for her.
“Then he hands me the title to the car, and it hit me. I started bawling and laughing, and everyone around me started clapping,” she said.
Max Hand said he couldn’t have asked for a better reaction from his wife.
“It turned out to be a perfect presentation. The weather, the whole thing couldn’t have been more perfect; it worked out so well,” he said.
It took him more than a year of planning to arrange this surprise birthday and anniversary gift for his wife.
He bought the car last year in April and had it shipped to Idaho, where their daughter picked it up for them and stored it in her garage for a time. “We were sneaky. My whole family was involved in this – all the kids, her brother-in-law and sister,” he said.
Hand said he could have waited until their anniversary in December, but with a car show in Chelan the day before her birthday, he decided this would be a better way to surprise her.
Pat is impressed that he kept the secret from her for so long. “He’s a talker. It must have been hard for him,” she said. And the gift? “It’s just awesome. He’s a sweetheart.”