Happy Birthday, Mary

Technically, I am a day late.  Yesterday I was fully aware it was Mary's 66th birthday.  And, I did not have the guts to sit down at the keyboard and write a birthday post.

I managed to surprise her twice with birthday parties.  One was before she moved to California so it must have been 1994.  The second was her 60th birthday and I held it at the California Cafe with friends and my daughter.

For pictures of her 60th, click this link. View Album

Mary's birthday started the 31 calendar days when she was the "older woman" because my birthday is April 8.  She hated the simple fact and after a few years asked me to stop mentioning it--it really did bother her.  I don't know why, and frankly I'd certainly love to bother her with it now but it is and never will be possible.

We were able to celebrate her last birthday in 2010.  She was feeling pretty good during the first part of March.  We were, of course, basking in the glow of the Oncologist's parting words from her Feb 22nd visit, "Go and live your life, you are cancer free!"  That was such a hopeful birthday.  Yes, she was still on morphine because of the pain in her back and we were working with the medical folks to wean her off the drug.  Plus, identifying the source of the pain so she could truly, "Go live her life..."

I gave her a small gold penguin pin.  She collected penguins and it was always a default gift if I couldn't come up with anything else.  Finding penguins could sometimes be a challenge but it made for a fun hunt.

Her appetite was good and after almost a year of my preparing meals, I managed to fix a nice birthday dinner for her.  Heck she even switched back to fish which she was unable to stomach in January.  

Here are a couple of links from the postings I made in 2010.
http://pat-los-gatos.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-birthday.html
http://pat-los-gatos.blogspot.com/2010/03/nice-and-quiet-birthday.html

Happy Birthday, Mary
Always and All Ways will I love you, 

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