Even with temperatures in the teens, the White Lake Fire Hall was packed with friends and family for a surprise birthday party for longtime White Lake resident and former White Lake Fire Chief, Tom  Hendrickson, who had just turned 80 on the first of the month.

Over the crowd of voices could be heard many saying “we love you, Tom” and other words of affection for the patriarch of the family gathered. Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, cousins, best friends, aunts, uncles, and many more came together to slice the cake and share each other’s company alongside Hendrinkson.

In his youth, Hendrickson exemplified ‘service’ as he joined the White Lake Fire Company (WLFC) at the age of 18, as well as having served a tour in post-WWII Germany in the U.S. Army for three years with his cousin. 

Hendrickson recounted that one of his standout moments as former Fire Chief of the WLFC was when he assisted in delivering food and water to attendees when the Woodstock Music Festival came to Bethel in 1969. Jokingly, he and his wife Lillian retold the story of him assisting at the music festival ‘Mysteryland,’ although his positive opinions on the two festivals swayed more towards Woodstock rather than the latter.

The apple does not fall far from the tree when it comes to living a life in the service of others for Hendrickson’s family. When they were married in 1975, Tom and Lillian established a family of eight children. From there, those roots spread even further into families of their own. Many of his children and grandchildren have embraced the fire service, medical occupations, and various other respected professional endeavors. 

A staple in the musical backstory of the longstanding marriage of Tom and Lillian, Mickey Barnett sang a setlist of classics for the birthday party attendees. Barnett also took up the microphone on their wedding day and on their 25th anniversary. Next year will be Tom and Lillian’s 50th anniversary together.

The birthday celebrant and his wife left not a dry eye in the house when they began their dance to the song “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife” written by Marty Robbins and sung by Barnett, a song that they had danced together to 49 years ago. Joining them on the dance floor to the musical number by Barnett were other couples, sharing quiet conversations of love with one another and swaying to the beat.

Hendrickson humorously said that the dance he and Lillian shared together was something that he “figured he owed her.” With a smile, he enjoyed his birthday cake and the rest of the night with his wife, surrounded by family, friends, loved ones, and the musical talent of the voice that ushered in nearly half a century of a marriage. A union that has inspired the professional passions of other relatives and has dispersed Tom’s sense of duty towards his family and community to all that call him, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and friend.