Theta for a Lifetime
These forty-two women ran to the Theta house on a hot August day, were given those vintage yellow kite t-shirts and embarked on a friendship and sisterhood so loving that it has endured for more than 46 years. We have met through the years at 1323 W. University for Theta reunions with other pledge classes and renewed those sweet friendships. We have supported each other as we started careers, married the loves of our lives, had beautiful children, faced health challenges and now many have dear grandchildren. We gathered at the Grand Lake cabin of our pledge sister Karen in 2014 and had a wonderful time reconnecting with nearly half of our pledge class, nineteen to be exact! That reunion sparked a desire to stay better connected in the future!
In the summer of 2022, we decided that we needed to plan a reunion and chose a large, beautiful home on Seagrove Beach, Florida that could accommodate 32 in late April 2023. We sent out emails to our 41 pledge sisters and were so excited that 23 signed up to come. Some drove in, but the majority flew into a local airport and carpooled to the house. As each dear sister arrived, it felt like no time had passed and chattering, smiles and laughter filled that beach house! We ordered party favors (of course!), including beverage tumblers and beach towels, both with monogrammed names. We went on bicycle and golf cart adventures, swam at the beach house pool, lounged and flew kites at the beautiful beach and sang Theta songs, led by our song leaders Shannon and Jane. We discovered that many of us like to read and have set up a bi-monthly book club that averages ten sisters. We attend the Zoom to take part in the discussion facilitated by one of the pledge sisters, but I suspect that many come just to see the faces of those dear to us! Each day we had themed meals (seafood gumbo provided by Melissa, Italian and Mexican) and specialty drinks at dinnertime. We ate all our meals together at two long tables, the entire time enjoying one another’s company and catching up on each other’s lives. After dinner, we had activities planned for each night. The first night we had an ice breaker game that we played on the huge 2nd story deck that could accommodate us all. The second night we played two rounds of Theta trivia. My, did that bring back special memories! The third night we played some more Theta trivia, along with 1979 trivia, which really tested our brains! We also shared our answers to some reflection questions we sent out prior to the reunion and tried to guess what each sister had written for some favorite memories. Lastly, we recorded a video that night to send to our sweet pledge sister Kathy Kirkpatrick Hendrickson (KP) who was fighting cancer at the time. Unfortunately, she lost her battle a year later and once again our pledge class had a reason to gather, this time amid tears at the memorial service. It seems that our time since pledging in 1978 has come full circle and the older we get we realize how special these friendships are. The last of us become Medicare eligible within the year, but we still have the hearts of those young girls who ran to 1323 W. University forty-six years ago!
In case you’re wondering, we have already put down a deposit and have started planning another reunion for this coming Spring at the same house! We are adding a few more and will be welcoming twenty-six pledge sisters to gather on May 1st. We have added a day to our trip this time since we had such a fabulous time in April 2023. Theta for a Lifetime certainly has a new meaning as we mature and we truly realize that we are linked heart to heart!
Susan Black Golliver, PC ‘79
