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| Marjorie Tower's birthday October 7, 1999 |
Happy Birthday, Mom. Thought that would be a better start than the usual "Hi, Mom."
The picture up top was taken a few months before you came down with the Meningitis. It shows you blowing out candles for the last birthday before the Meningitis changed the way you lived the rest of your life. I have a feeling that before the meningitis you would not have wanted me to share this picture with the world, but then, after the meningitis, you wouldn't have cared. You would have laughed at this picture after the meningitis, once you were back to her best self and laughing. You had such a great sense of humor, but an even more easy going sense in your Post-Meningitis days.
The very first picture I shared in this series of "Hey, Mom" posts was of you, Mom, seated before a birthday cake. This photo had sat out, unprotected, on my desk, for over a year, always in sight, when I could think about the happy times we all shared and how your life was very different after the meningitis. By no means did you have an awful life or too much misery after the meningitis, but life was harder, there were many close call hospital visits, and there were just certain things you couldn't do, even before the palsy began to work its degenerative perfidy. I know you would agree.But that's a depressing subject, so instead CAT UMBRELLA!!
That's much more fun.
Looking at this picture, your expression looks a bit "what the Hell?" But actually, aren't you identifying the different kinds of cats in the umbrella design?
You loved cats.
You don't need me to tell you that, but other readers may need reminding.
Birthdays were a big deal at our house. You loved holidays, Mom, especially birthdays. When I was writing the T-shirt blog, I dedicated an entire blog (a BIG ONE) to what made our birthdays so special. I have provided the link below. It's also about SPACE GHOST.
This is a link: T-shirt #303 Space Ghost
I thought about you all day today (October 7th, a Wednesday), your birthday, which I spent mostly alone as Liesel is away on a trip. It was a day full of activity and busy work but also bittersweet sadness, which is less a raw and open sore and more a deep ache in the heart.
At one quiet moment, I heard you, Mom, speaking to me, quite clearly (though in my head): "it's all right, Christopher. I am fine. I am happy and well. You will be all right, too. It's all going to be okay."
I felt re-assured and loved.
I may not have always been the best son. I may not have always helped make your birthdays as special and wonderful as you made mine in the years up to and including 1999. But in 2000 and after, shaken up by your near death experience and long recovery from surgery and meningitis and dealing with your partial paralysis, I tried to make each moment like your birthday. And then we had fifteen more of them before you had to leave us. I know you thought they were just as special as I did, as our family did.
I love you, Mom. I will think of you every day, but especially on your birthday.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 95 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1510.07 - 21:07
and again - 1510.09 - 6:47
PS: This lateness is tradition, too. I started to assemble this post on Wednesday, your birthday, Mom. But then with work and school and home work and the dog and all that, I was unable to finish it (a state I consider finished) until Friday. This delayed celebrating was something we did a lot, especially with your birthday. There was the actual day and then the celebration on a different day, one that best fit all of our schedules. Why should that change now? :-)
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| this photo is a bit of a cheat it's a mother's day photo (1996) but it's a great photo, so I used it anyway! |
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