Happy Birthday Mama!

Mama has been up in heaven these past eleven years, but I still always remember her on her birthday.  

Today would have been my Mama's 99th birthday if she were still alive.  Hard to believe that she would be so old, but there you have it.  

Next year I think I will throw a party on Mama's birthday to celebrate her 100th birthday.  Who knows?  She may even attend.  It was never wise to underestimate my Mama. 

But I digress....

Hmm...let's see...I was talking about Mama's birthday.

When I was a little girl I HATED Mama's birthday with a passion because back then Mama's birthday was usually the first day of school or the last day of summer vacation. 

I would whine and complain and generally be miserable just from the heat alone in late August, as we had no air conditioning back then, but add in school starting back and me having to purchase a birthday present for someone who had everything she wanted and hated everything else, and I'm sure you can understand the loathing I felt towards Mama's birthday.

My father also died on Mama's birthday in 1962, so every birthday Mama had after that was overshadowed by losing Daddy.  For most of Mama's 1960s birthdays she would not want to talk to anyone, and was generally grouchy and sad remembering Daddy on that day, but in the 1970s and 1980s when the younger of her grandchildren came along, her birthday meant parties and cake, so it was better then.

We also had air conditioning by then, so life itself seemed somehow much better in general.

At those parties we would tease Mama about needing to call the fire department before we lit the cake...just in case.  Case in point:

Mama with her youngest grandchildren, Katie and Chad

As Mama's birthdays became larger and larger numbers, the fire on the cake got bigger and bigger.  The last one we dared light was so huge that when I wrote a poem about birthdays for one of my poetry books, I used it to create my illustration.

Yes.  That is Mama's real birthday cake fire, and, yes, Mama really did blow out that fire!  She was about 80 by then, so this was impressive!

This is the birthday I always think about when I think of Mama's birthdays.  We laughed and laughed about that cake fire and teased her unmercifully.  She laughed about it for years everytime we mentioned birthday candles.

I sure hope her wish came true, and I hope she has a very Happy Birthday up in heaven today.  Until we meet again....