Not everyone could make it to the service. Heck, I didn't expect to get their on time, either. However, as it turns out I'd managed to arrange my day's work so that the last nursing home I visited was only about a mile from the home where we celebrated, and so I got there in good time.
The gentleman who normally assists our Torah reader didn't make it, so when the time came, I joined him at the altar and helped keep him on track, using the book with the Hebrew annotated with vowels. Torah doesn't have that.
In the end, a lovely evening.