Lisa Ann Jackson Thomson

Happy Birthday, Suzette!

Besides her sparkling personality and dazzling charm, perhaps the thing that stands out most to me of dear Suzette is the story of how we met. Bless Matt Clark.

Suzette was dating Matt, and Rebecca Taylor and I knew Matt, but we did not know Suzette -- nor did we know Matt was dating anyone. Rebecca and I organized a little weekend outing to hike to the top of Mt. Timpanogos and spend the night at a condo in Midway. Several guys and gals joined us for the trip, including Matt.

It was a fun hike and a fun evening with friends in Midway. The next morning we all went our separate ways and I thought nothing more of the occasion other than of the pleasant time we all had.

Several weeks later I was at a lunch that Rebecca and I organized for singles who worked near/in downtown Salt Lake. A very friendly and outgoing gal named Suzette sat near me. I hadn't met her before, but we had a lovely lunch and I enjoyed our conversation. She soon became a good friend to both Rebecca and me, and we had many more occasions from that time forward to build our friendship.

What I learned later was that Suzette had ulterior motives -- and so did Matt. Apparently the back story that I was happily oblivious to was something like this: (Suzette will have to fill in the details I miss or get wrong) Suzette and Matt were "at a point" in their relationship, and Matt had told Suzette about this Timp trip but did not invite her to go. Rather he said he felt like he needed to go to check out his "other options." Of course Suzette had cause to be concerned and, frankly, mad.

In discussing this trip, Matt had thrown out the name "Lisa Jackson" (and probably "Rebecca Taylor" too, but I don't remember). Apparently Matt had also told Suzette somewhere along the way that he wants a girl who can ski and who can speak Spanish (neither of which were Suzette's fortes at the time -- but you should see her ski now! I don't know about the Spanish part...). I think he may even have mentioned that he wants a woman with dark hair. I'm not sure about that. But when Suzette had heard about the downtown lunch and saw the name "Lisa Jackson" as an organizer, she had to clear her schedule to attend, and her sitting next to me was not the luck of the draw. It was calculated.

Imagine Suzette's surprise, when she thought she was scoping out the enemy, she discovered that I don't ski at all and I served my mission in England and therefore don't speak Spanish. I do have dark hair, but again, I don't remember if that was a salient detail or not. And perhaps most surprising to Suzette was that she really liked me!

And as it turns out, she liked me better than Matt. Her relationship with Matt ended shortly after the Timp hike, but her relationship with me remains to this day. And I should clarify before I conclude: I never had a relationship with Matt. So Suzette, I say, Happy 40th Birthday dear friend! Thank heaven for Matt Clark!