Dear friends,
Here's how my birthday went. :-)) My dear Ben brought me breakfast in bed. Itwas a big plate of fresh fruit including sliced bananas, watermelon and oranges,
followed by a cup of Chinese jasmine green tea. He had a similar plate for himself, and we ate companionably together. Downstairs there was a cup of freshly
brewed coffee and some toasted raisin and cinnamon bread. There was also a carefully chosen birthday card beside my coffee cup. Its loving words deeply touched
my heart. Our youngest daughter called with birthday greetings
After her call I noticed on the couch beside me the first of a series of five small white envelopes. Each was numbered and contained a brilliant coloured sheet
of paper with a little rhyming message that led me to the next envelope somewhere in the house. This fun little birthday hunt at last brought me to a surprise
package from some of my friends. They live far from each other and also far from me, so they got their big surprise carefully together by mail and sent it to Ben. He kept it at his office until the proper day and then hid it at home. A couple of evenings ago he sat outside in the garden thinking, and today he told me he was writing the little poem messages for the whiteenvelopes.
Ben was as curious as I was about what was in the package. It turned out to be full of thoughtfully chosen gifts. There was a set of cold drink coasters with charming hand painted pictures, a beautiful, colourful wall decoration, another that is an old symbol for good luck, a charming bracelet made of various coloured
stones with interesting markings, a necklace with four beautiful colours in it.
They are colours that I often love to wear. There were recent photos, a loving letter, a poem on a hand-made card by two of the children, with my birth sign
which is Taurus the Bull. (Coincidentally, in Chinese astrology my sign is the Fire-Ox. Isn't that odd?) The package was so thoughtfully and lovingly prepared
that I carefully went over everything slowly several times inorder to savour all the love in that package, while Ben was upstairs getting dressed for a doctor's appointment. He took the day off from work at the office, but couldn't miss the appointment. So I sat there and mused about how lucky I amto have such dear family and friends and decided to wear the bracelet and necklace for my birthday lunch at The Great Wall with Ben. They were both perfect in
style and colour for the cool dress I wore with sandals.
Ben left for his second appointment with our eye specialist. The previous week
he had received a paper cut on his left eyeball while bending to open a file. It
became reddened and weepy on the second day so the specialist prescribed antibiotic drops and other medication and wanted to check it again in a week's time.
Ben came home with the news that the eye is healing but both medications must be
continued for another week and then it should be checked again. He also brought me the morning paper. :-)
Ben's sister called from Germany with birthday greetings for me, and also some family news. Her baby grandson's bones in his skull (which usually open normally
in babies) are stuck. They need to be opened manually through an operation soon
, or his brain will become cramped. They will need to fashion a new forehead.
He is a beautiful, healthy little boy and the hospital and specialists are Germany's best in the field, but the family is, understandably, becoming more anxiousas time for the operation draws near. Ben and I had promised to be there in spirit and pray for the success of the operation, and they keep us informed and send pictures. You can see a little peak forming down the centre of his forehead.
He is a very lively and intelligent little child.
Yesterday, the 17th, was the first really hot day of the year. Bright and sunny
,and the temperature went to 30 c. Whew! The restaurant was cool and fresh and
we began with our usual big pot of jasmine green tea, then progressed to a liesurely lunch of a variety of delicious foods, among which were won-ton soup for Ben
, two kinds of little dumplings one stuffed with potato and the other with chicken, sweet and sour pork in a red sauce, rices, noodle varieties, deep fried shrimp, poached fresh salmon, vegetables with beef in black bean sauce, deep fried almond chicken, and many other choices of hot dishes and varieties of salads, fresh fruits and desserts. Our favourite dessert is a kind of flan that we also eat in Mexico. It is very delicate, made with eggs, and has a browned sugar sauce
. They also have a variety of ice creams and some delicate Chinese rice cookies
that Ben likes very much.
When we finally finished we left to look for a storm and screen door for the door at the back of our house. We checked in several places, and finally found an
suitable one that is glass from top to bottom, reinforced glass that even a steeltoed work boot can't break. In fact the salesman wore just such boots, and gaveit a big kick. I was astonished that it remained the same as ever. The screenautomatically retracts into a hiden chamber or opens, when you want it. When Ben asked what I would like from him for my birday I said something for the house,
so we decided together that we would very much enjoy being able to have the back door open for cool morning or evening breezes to waft through in summer, yet
we also wanted security. We found the right door. A man will come to install it
in a few days or a week.
By then it was late afternoon and time for a cold drink. We went, according to
plan where I wanted to go, to the old inn, the El Dorado, to sit right down beside the lake under an umbrella, but the sudden heat had caught them by surprise and the lakeside seating wasn't open. Only their bar patio was open and there were smokers that and it was rather crowded, so we left to go to Coyotes, another
favourite spot on a second floor balcony right above the beautiful beachwalk and
the lake. It is a world-class setting. :-) By then it was late enough to eat,
so we both settled for a light supper of a salad and a cold drink. After enjoying the freshness by the lake and even one peal of thunder and
a few drops of cool rain we left to find a video for the evening. We found three for two days for $5.00. Then we came home.
There were six messages on the answering machine, and messages in the email from
one of my friends in Sacramento California. Canuck and his wife both wrote longand newsy posts. There was an email from my other twin brother. From the answering machine we found that our second daughter had called early to wish me a happy birthday and then again about sad family news. And then several about their
plans to come immediately here for the funeral. Her husband's brother had just
died of leukemia at 8 am. Efforts to save him when her husband donated his blood, that at first seemed very successful, failed, and he has been quickly waning
for about two weeks. The last time they were here was to say goodbye to him and
to try to comfort the old and frail parents.
Now our daughters' husband and their two children, 15 and 19 years old had driven all day and were with his family again here in our town. Our daughter leads an unusually full and busy life, so she had to spend the day making many changes
in arrangements so that she could leave people with all the information theyneeded to carry on about five different projects.
When she didn't find a telephone reply at our house she worried that we might be
away for the weekend. She set out by ferry and the high mountain highway, driving alone, and expected to arrive about midnight at our house where she hoped to
stay the night. Her husband and children stayed with the other grandparents to
help to comfort them and to assist with funeral plans. Tomorrow evening is the
"viewing" when people can come to see the body in the open casket. It has been
embalmed. It seems this is a strong German custom, althoughhis father and also our daughter and her family don't like it. They prefer to remember him when he was alive, so although they will attend to greet visitors they don't intend to be near the coffin. The funeral is Saturday. Since he had plenty of time to make all of his
last arrangements the dear soul completely planned his own funeral to save them
the grief of it. I think Ben will attend.
We sent a card again as we did when they all realized he was going to die.
Our eldest daughter called to say that she had comforted the second one by phonebefore she set out. I reached our second daughter on her cell phone as she was
crossing on the ferry to the mainland to tell her we are home and that she should stay with us. Now it's the next day and she has gone on to the other family.
When the phone rang again and it was friend Harry calling to come over. He and his wife Giselle brought me a gift of two large bottles, one each of their excellent home-made cherry and grape juice from their tree and vines, and four big, healthy tomato plants that Harry grew from seed for Ben. We visited awhile in the
cool of the evening and when they left it was too late to watch a video. Ben was very tired so I waited up for our daughter.
She arrived at about midnight. We were so glad to be together and shared big hugs and loving words. I discovered that she had hardly eaten all day and hadn't
stopped anywhere along the way so that it wouldn't be noticed that she was a woman driving alone. She had her hair up under a man's cap and wore a plaid work
shirt and jeans and if you didn't look too closely you wouldn't realize there was a beautiful woman in disguise. :-)) Luckily I had plenty of quick things I could give her and she enjoyed a late supper. She told me several times how much
the talk on the phone with her big sister had meant to her.
We were in bed by 1:30 am. She was up again with Ben by 6:30 am and had a visit
with him over breakfast before I arrived shortly past 7. Ben left, first for the office, and from there at 10:30 for the funeral of a close neighbour. Our Italian neighbour's pretty little wife Santina suddenly died of Alzheimer's diseasewhich she had suffered from for the past couple of years. Two weeks ago she had suddenly rallied and even gone out for a walk by herself, something she had been unable to do recently. She stopped and had a lucid conversation with me and our next door neighbour. In some cases there is such a remarkable rally not long
before death. Two days later she was in hospital, then didn't recognize her husband, was moved to chronic care and wouldn't be able ever to come home again.
Then she began to sink fast; their son and family came, and then she died. Her
husband is a very good man who took total and loving care of her for the past couple of years as she declined. It was a blessing for them both that she didn't
linger at the end.
Ben went to a Roman Catholic cathedral for her funeral mass, back to the church
hall for light refreshments and then went back to work. It's 5 pm now. He just
phoned that it will be awhile yet before he can leave to come home as he still
has clients.
We expect our daughter tonight. Before she left this morning I was telling her
all about my birthday when the doorbell rang and one long-stemmed red rose from
our youngest child (one red rose means love,) was delivered by the florest whose
message was one of the six on the answering machine when we came home yesterday
. They couldn't find our house. (It's quite tricky to find.) It was better for
them not to have left the rose on the doorstep yesterday in the heat when we weren't home, anyway, so things worked out for the best. Today it looks very beautiful and fresh and I'm keeping it in the refrigerator and only taking it out to
put on the table at meal times. :-)
Now, don't you agree that was a very full and varied day?
With love and affection to you, all my dear forum friends,
Mary
