Surprises--I prefer predictable or Predictable: one of the best qualities

Recently, our neighbours family had a surprise birthday party for her. it was a lot of fun and she seemed genuinely happy that we had all gone to the effort to make a special surprise for her. gratefully, on my 50th birthday, my family knew better. I do not consider surprises a good thing and I have had way to many of them in my lifetime to confirm this theory.
My father was the master of surprises. I do not remember him having a job for more than 4 years. Indeed, most of the time he only lasted one year, only to come home and tell my mother that he had quit his job for one reason or another.I think the most colossal of his surprises was the mothers day that he drove us to Baldwin, Ontario, under the pretence of "buying" my mother a lovely antique wash set for their room. In fact, we were there to look at a piece of real estate that he wanted to invest in. that in itself is not surprising; the fact that the real estate was an airport! that was surprising! As a 14year old, I could not understand why my mother was not ecstatically happy over this idea. As a wife and mother, I owe her an apology. I would have killed my husband for something like that. Sadly, it wasn't until quite late in his life that we came to the realisation that he was actually, bi-polar and that it was the reason for most of his erratic behaviour. this would have explained much had we known when he was younger.
When it came time to choose my own mate for life, I knew one thing: I wanted predictable. No surprises! I wanted to know what my husband would do in any situation and not have to worry about being surprised. I had survived enough surprise and drama for an entire lifetime in the first 20 years of my life. I did not require anymore.
Max is as solid as a rock, both in body and spirit and I am happy to report that there have been very few things that he has surprised me with. Many might describe this as boring; however, I consider predictability one of his best qualities. Both Max and myself had childhoods with very few predictable outcomes, and while his stolid behaviour may bore some women who crave adventure and excitement, I have come to depend on that predictability more than anyone could ever know.
However, life on its own will throw you a few of those surprises; one of which is having your child diagnosed with a disability. I must say, even I who had known max for 14 years by the time we were told Connors prognosis, was not sure how he would have reacted to being told that his son would never walk, never run, never play hockey.
I wasn't sure, but, I should have known better. Max, solid and strong, found a way for Connor to walk, run, climb rocks, swim, do Jujitsu, play music and yes, even play hockey. In fact, Connor scored more goals in Electric Wheelchair hockey than Jarrett did in Ice hockey!
What I could not have predicted was how well Max did it all. He had no experience with the disabled or the sick. His life had been spent in sports competition. to say that Max's family are competitive sports nuts would be an understatement. For him to be given the task of raising a severely physically disabled son compares to a music teacher having a deaf child. But, predictable is one of his qualities and he rose to the challenge.
I am grateful that although we were surprised by Connor's diagnosis, and in fact, by everything Connor has done since then, that when I chose my spouse, I knew that surprises were not a good thing. That the safe, solid, predictable man was the one to go for. after all, Connor has given us more than enough surprises over the years to deal with, as well as, I am sure, many more to come.

For now, I am sticking with predictable, it is Max's best quality!