Happy Birthday to Me

I celebrated another birthday! I’ve been granted another year to grow wiser; another year to spend with family and friends; another twelve months to read, to discover things, to grow a garden, to sort out my stuff and throw out my trash.

This year I had lovely cupcakes on my birthday. Last year? Sonny bought a huge cake from a bakery. The year before? Mr. Hubby had asked: “You want a birthday cake?” What a question to ask someone on her birthday! Of course I gave the answer expected of me: “No, don’t bother.” But I was crying inside.

I’ve long given up hope of receiving any gift from Mr. Hubby but he’ll give me flowers when I die. At least that was what he said when I asked him, once upon a time, why he never gave me flowers. We (meaning his family) only give flowers when people die, he had told me. Well, I’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t go before me if I wanted those flowers! Or, if I’m really desperate, perhaps I can ask him to set aside some money for “To buy flowers for Tina when she dies”!

I hope he knows that I’d love to get pink and yellow roses, a small mountain of them, and white tiger lilies and red carnations. No chrysanthemums on my grave, please. Yes, I want to be buried. And whoever cares to come say goodbye must wear only colours from the rainbow. Okay, enough about death and funeral. I’m supposed to be writing about my birthday, a jolly occasion. Why did I take that wrong turning?

We never had our birthdays celebrated when we were kids although my mother knows everyone’s birth date, all twelve of us! She even knows the day and time some of us were born! (I was a Sunday baby born at eight in the morning.) Each birthday was just like any ordinary day and not even worthy of being mentioned or acknowledged. When I had my own kids, birthdays became important events; milestones to celebrate with friends and to record in pictures. I cannot imagine not celebrating Sonny and Dottie’s birthdays although a few birthday parties were attended only by a handful of family members.

Do you have a favourite birthday memory? My favourite took place a few years ago when some of my siblings put their heads together and, after whispered phone conversations with my kids, they cooked up a plan to have a party at our house. You can imagine my surprise when one by one three of my siblings and their families trooped in at dinner time. Our dining table groaned under the weight of their gifts and wine and  food which was specially ordered from a restaurant! That birthday celebration was one of the nicest things my siblings have ever done for me.

How do you celebrate your birthday? Cheers to a wonderful year ahead!