In Tribute

Today is the birthday of my parents.  Yes, my parents were born on the same day but different years.  My father used to tell me that he wished I had been born on the same day as they.  Nah, I choose to come 11 days earlier: in the old year. 

Today my mother celebrates her 80^th birthday while if Daddy were alive it would have been his 81^st.  I would always dream that as my parents approached their latter years I would be giving back to them.    My father once gave me a book of poetry and I remember that one of the poems had a few lines that read as “Grow old along with me”.  “The best is yet to be”.  I would imagine that yes indeed, with the pressures of work and fatherhood over, we would become friends and delight in the pleasures that an adult child enjoys with its parent.  As a young woman I would picture us having celebrations with my family, and the ‘grands’ just loving it.  Those dreams were not to be. 

I still cannot give back to my mother and my dear father has passed on, o’ so many years ago.  What I can do in these few lines is pay tribute to my parents, writing, thank- you for my birth.  

Happy Birthday Daddy!         Happy Birthday Mother!