Today would've been my mom's 94th birthday. It's the second one
without her now. My older brother sent an email on Tuesday to my
siblings and me telling us that he's throwing a birthday party in our
mom's honor tonight. He's making the dish that she fell in
love with while she was living with him three years ago, barbecued
chicken that's been marinated all day in his very secret sauce. There's
going to be a family gathering at his home in Virginia for that.
My
siblings and I all responded with such enthusiastic joy at such a great
idea that we each decided to come up with our own birthday party plans.
My sister said that she had been talking with her
children and they're going to have a birthday party dinner as well.
They're going to make a dish that my father used to make for the family
many, many years ago. It's a spaghetti and meatball dinner with another
secret family recipe for the meatballs. There is going to be a family
gathering for that at her house.
My twin brother said
he was going to cut a bouquet of flowers from his yard and take them
down to the Capitola wharf (the wharf that we could see from the beach
house window). He's going to scatter those flowers in the bay the way
Roger and I have done for so many, many years. He's going to shout out a
Happy Birthday to her, and a loving hello to my dad whose ashes are
there.
Roger and I are going to celebrate by making my
mom's favorite breakfast food, a batch of almond maple granola. I used
to make a double batch all the time and send her half. It was how she
started every morning in her assisted living facility, and here as well
when she lived with us. We shipped granola to her so often, the local
shipping place knew us when we walked in the door.
We shared emails about our plans. It was so wonderful, so full of love.
My
phone rang after all the emails. It was one of my brothers. He said, "I
was just meditating, and I sensed that mom came for a visit with me.
She told me that she wants you to send me half of that granola."
We laughed and laughed.
Our mother will always be such a deeply loved mom.
This is our cyberspace birthday card!
Happy birthday, mom, wherever you are in the universe!