We Made It Through My Mom's Birthday

[Whiteswan]

I hadn't been on here in awhile so didn't post that my Mom's 81st birthday would have been September 2nd. It was a day I was dreading to go through without her but my son and I believe she was a part of it anyway. A few days prior to her birthday I bought one of those scratch lottery tickets, scratched it and won a free ticket. My son wanted to get another ticket right away but I had a feeling to wait until my Mom's birthday. The morning of her birthday we went to get her a bouquet of sunflowers (her absolute favorite flower) to take to her grave and we turned in the lottery ticket to get the free one. Even though my son is only 8 yrs old he insisted that he pick out the new ticket. (The salesman was ok with that as I was the adult getting it.) My son picked it out then said "Let's wait till we get to the cemetary to scratch it, ok?" I agreed. Once at the cemetary I was getting the flowers, blanket we sit on at her grave, etc out of the car and my son ran to her grave which is not far from where the car was. He had a penny to scratch the ticket and all of a sudden I heard "Hey Mom! We won 50 bucks!!! We did! We did!" and came running to the car. I thought he must be reading it wrong as I have never won any more than $5.00 on those tickets but when I looked at it sure enough it said $50.00! My son said "See! Nana must have made this happen!" I had to agree and said" Let's go out to dinner with it tonight to celebrate her birthday." He happily agreed. I used to always take my Mom out to dinner for her birthday (my sister and nephew used to come too but there was no sign that they even went to the cemetary on or near her birthday now and they hadn't been around the past 2 birthdays of her life!) . Anyway when she got too sick to go out the last few years I'd order her favorite foods from a resturaunt to eat at home. So my son and I went to Applebees that night and had steak dinners with desserts. He said in the resturaunt "Nana would have wanted us to do this so that's why I think we won the 50 bucks." I think so too because I wouldn't have went out to dinner unless we'd won the money. It was a hard day without her but I really believe she had a hand in making it better for us. I found out later that even though there was no show from my sister and nephew at the cemetary on her birthday , my cousin and Aunt went out there to pay their respects as my cousin emailed me that they saw the beautiful sunflowers that we put there and they left some flowers too.

[LoriW]

Whiteswan,

What a great story! It made me feel happy for you and your son. It was a silver lining to a day you had been not looking forward to.

I had a good feeling on my Mom's birthday too. Her's was on July 8th and I had been dreading it for weeks. I did have a really good cry before I began my day because I was sad and had a lot of memories of past birthdays with her that were great and I was mourning what I would have been doing had she'd been here still.

I got up and my youngest daughter and I went and got flowers for my Mom's grave and she picked out a Sponge Bob balloon. We went out there for a few minutes and then came home. Later, knowing my Dad would probably have a rough time of it that day, I drove 90 minutes up to his house with my 2 girls. I surprised him at his church as Mass was being said for my Mom. Then he took us to dinner as well as other friends of his and my Mom's. It felt good to laugh, talk and eat with people who knew my Mom well, with those she enjoyed company with the most. It was as if I was at a birthday dinner without the birthday girl. However, I felt her spirit in everyone's laughter and conversations.

After dinner, we went back to my Dad's house and my Dad, my daughter's and I played a game my Mom had taught the girls called, Chckenfoot. We played from 8PM until midnight until we were all exhausted. I can say that when my head hit the pillow that night the day ended much differently than how it had started...I smiled because I knew my Mom's spirit was here that day. I could feel it all around me, and I knew she would be pleased. I think she too had a Happy Birthday.

Lori

[shell]

Whiteswan,

Wow, how wonderful! It HAD to be your mom! Glad it turned out so well.

Hugs,

Shell

[dpodesta]

Whiteswan,

What an experience! It gave me goosebumps reading it. I know it must have been hard on you, as I think it is on all of us when it comes to our loved ones birthday. I know she was looking down on you today and was with you.