“The RoseBouquet”

I’ve always thought of my birthday as a season in the middle of the summer, coinciding with the Raspberry season.

Because I’ve collected friends for years, I still get cards coming in a couple of weeks before July 31, and they keep arriving for another week or so after. When I come home with the mail, I have party-time for a few minutes while I open and explore cards, letters, and occassionally gifts tucked in. This year four arrived right on the day, and three after. There were also a number of e-cards in my email on Monday!

Aunt Jessie even sent a card that sang to me when I opened it!

Dad and I had gone to the city to fetch my brother Tom on Sunday afternoon, then to a missions conference in Waldheim, 30 minutes drive from here. Monday night we went again, and were pleased when Tom got a ride with others back to the city; it saved us that trip. But that night I had two long distance birthday calls. It was especially sweet to hear my sister Elsie’s voice as we had not been in touch by phone for many months. Moments later, her daughter Jalise called too.

Last night Aunt Jean called from Toronto. She had tried several times over the weekend.

You know why each of these are so precious to me when you understand that Dad doesn’t really know how to do birthdays for others. However, this year he had managed to get me something on his own. He gave me unwrapped, a boxed set of three medium-sized photo albums, and a wallet-sized day-planner binder. He thought I might use the albums for recipes - and I might yet. I need to think it over. These are not new. The point is though that he figured this out on his own! That’s good.

I had him to the doctor yesterday, for a regular three month checkup, and the doctor and I agreed that Dad’s memory is slipping. I’ve known it for some time, but others are noticing it now too.