Regina couple celebrates 40th wedding anniversary in KFC parking lot

Lisa Hodges had been planning her 40th wedding anniversary for years. The celebration would have brought the couple's children, who are scattered across the country, all together. The couple had flights and a cruise booked.

But then COVID-19 arrived. They had to cancel their plans and stay at home, a feeling people across the world are now pretty used to. 

Hodges said she remembers complaining to her husband, saying things like "we can't go to dinner, we can't even go to a movie."

And then, the phrase that started it all: "Well, might just have to be KFC in the parking lot," she remembers her husband saying jokingly. It got Hodges' wheels turning.

Hodges and her husband celebrated their anniversary last Sunday morning, but then it was time for the surprise. In preparation, Hodges had hidden some things in the back part of her car: a folding table and chairs, a bottle of wine, some flowers, glasses and a tablecloth. 

"I told him 'come on, get your glad rags on, get yourself dressed up. We're going out,' and he did as he was told, I'll give him credit for that," Hodges said on CBC Radio's Saskatchewan Weekend. 

"He had no idea where we were going."

The KFC on McCarthy Boulevard came into view and a celebration was born. Hodges sent her husband in to order while she hurriedly set up in the parking lot. 

"I said to him I wanted a burger because I knew it would take longer to make that," she said. 

"As he came back out with the food, he just looked absolutely gobsmacked."

Operation KFC anniversary was a success, although Hodges said they did get a few funny looks from people coming into the drive-thru.

"Forty years is kind of special and to have not done anything would have just felt completely deflating," she said. "I just wanted something that we'd remember."