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It’s My Birthday . . . Again!

June 15, 2018 by Rebecca Forster in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster, Writing tagged as birthday, gifts, giveaway, links, Memories, writing, writing craft

My birthday is June 16. I only know it’s my birthday because my husband keeps reminding me of the date, asking me what I want, and telling me we should celebrate. He has to do this because, in my family, I am legendary for not remembering birthdays. I forget my sister’s birthday even though we were born on the same day but fourteen years apart. My birthday piggybacks Father’s Day, too. I remember Father’s Day because there are lots of TV commercials for steaks, tools and aftershave. Rebecca’s birthday? Not so much.

There is also the matter of age. After the shock of the first AARP envelope at forty, the assisted living brochures at fifty and the burial at sea pitches when I turned sixty, I started taking birthdays in stride. Seriously, there isn’t much that can surprise me anymore on the aging score.

Lest you think me a birthday Scrooge, let me share the one thing I love about birthdays. I love the memory of them. When I was a little girl my mom threw awesome birthday parties for my brothers and sisters and me. I was number two in a six-pack and birthdays were celebrated with the neighborhood kids, balloons and a big homemade cake. In the backyard, we played tag, hide-and-seek and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. There were prizes for the winners but everyone went home with a gift bag. Even at my own birthday party it was that little gift bag I treasured most. I adored that there was always more than one thing: a couple pieces of candy, a silly toy that would break a day later, a paper crown. This bag was a treasure hunt, something unexpected, some thing that, in those lean days, mom would never buy just because. Those parties taught me that unexpected gifts can be the best things in the world.

So, in honor of my mother and the memories of those wonderful parties, I would like to give you a gift. Before Her Eyes is a thriller that will hopefully keep you up at night, but it’s also a very personal story, written when both my dad and my father-in-law were ill. It is a gift of my craft and a little bit of me thrown in to boot and it’s all wrapped up in the memory of a child’s party.