January 29th,2015 was my birthday. It was to have been a significant birthday for many reasons. First and foremost, I didn’t think I would make it to this birthday and the ripe old age of 65. Illness had robed me of most of my vim, vigor and vitality, and my mom died at 64. So….about a week before my birthday I made big plans to celebrate this milestone. Most of my extended family lives in Philadelphia, so I invited as many as I could afford to come to dinner with me in Philadelphia. My wonderful hubby and I would come down the day before my birthday, have the dinner, spend the night and go back home on my actual birthday so I could be with my daughter. A simple plan, I looked forward to it with the eagerness that a child looks forward to Christmas. Reservations were made, invitations were called and emailed, everyone accepted. I was elated. Because it was January, in the back of my mind always loomed the possibility of bad weather. It must have been a premonition, because two days before my big day, the east coast was hit with a major BLIZZARD! All plans were cancelled.
On January 29th, 2015, instead of a beautiful memory from the night before I was stuck in the house with pain in my left foot, and an ache in my heart for my lost celebration. I had one really good private pity party. I invited NO ONE!
Sometime during the evening I went on Facebook. There I found many birthday greetings from family, friends, and former students. Each one lifted my heart. There was one very special message from a young man I had taught. He told me how I had changed his life. He started piano instruction under my tutelage, and went on to be a pianist, and organist. Self-absorption is a bitch! and not a trap one should fall into. I have had several other students write and tell me how much my class has meant to them, but this one took a special place just when I needed a lift the most. God’s timing is always perfect.
At my mom’s funeral, a lady sang “If I can Help Somebody” not at my request, but because that was the kind of person my mom was. I would like to think that in some small way I have followed in her footsteps, because she was one hell-of-a woman. At 5’4″, she was somewhat like Hetty on N.C.I.S Los Angeles. A no-nonsense dynamo with a heart of mushy gold. I have now officially lived longer than she, and I live to carry on her legacy, which is an awesome responsibility.
So to sum up my ramblings, 65 turned out to be a great birthday. A Milestone! A Hump on a camels back, that I have now gotten over. “MY SOUL LOOKS BACK AND WONDER, HOW I GOT OVER!” “PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW”.
