Birthday 2019

A weekend of surprises!

On Friday I turned 75 years old. I’d been through 75 birthdays before and hadn’t celebrated one since I was about thirteen so it wasn’t an overriding concern as 22 February dawned. Actually I didn’t even think of it being my birthday until I got an e-mail birthday greeting.

A woman had called and asked to meet at 6:00 PM Friday night so I was waiting for her. A couple other people came by also and I thought that was odd but I was talking to them while I waited. Then the appointment came and asked me to step outside. I thought she was just getting away from the two I was talking with but when I stepped outside there was a group from our Tuesday prayer group and from the St. Vincent de Paul Society all gathered to wish me a happy birthday. Their coming was a total surprise!

Friday

The group waiting for me outside the Maryknoll office! There weren’t 75 candles on the cake although it sure looks like it here!
When they sang Happy Birthday to me I sang along in sign language.
We have about this many people, maybe more, each week for our Maryknoll meeting so we had chairs, plates, knives and forks, and glasses at hand for this crowd.

Sunday

You’d think I’d learn, especially when the lector added a prayer for me in the prayer of the faithful at the 10:00 AM mass this morning, but I was caught totally by surprise again as I walked to the back of church at the end of mass. I was presented with a cake and the congregation sang Happy Birthday!

This was the first time I’ve ever been greeted with a cake at the end of mass.
I thanked everyone and invited all downstairs for our coffee and doughnuts. It had been postponed from last week to coincide with my birthday but I had been told the setup crew wasn’t available last week.
Downstairs I said thank you again and this time I showed them Thank You in various sign languages. Here I’m showing a Japanese Thank You.

It turned out to be a surprising and wonderful weekend with beautiful people. Thank you all!