maddie: second assignment

[maddie]

My family wasn't big on celebrating birthdays. They were acknowledged and gifts were given, cakes were baked or bought, and the birthday person got to pick the meal for that day. But that was about it.

I can't remember a single attempt made by my parents to give me a birthday party, except the year I turned ten. In fairness to my parents, money was tight and Mom wasn't the healthiest person around. For my tenth birthday, I got to invite some friends to go play miniature golf, then get ice cream after that.

I remember being very excited about it. I carefully picked friends from school and, of course, my very best friend, who lived across the street. Finally, I was going to have a birthday party!

It was the last day of school, too, which made it even more special. We had a half day for school, then Mom would take us all out to the miniature golf place.

Very early in the morning of my birthday, around 2 a.m., I remember waking up to some kind of commotion. I stayed in bed and eventually drifted back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, Dad told me that he'd had to take Mom to the hospital. She needed surgery, again, and wouldn't be there for my birthday. He'd arranged to take the day off and was going to take my friends and me out, like Mom had planned. I remember being vaguely concerned about Mom, but she'd been in and out of the hospital so often in my 10 years of life, I'd become accustomed to it. It wasn't until much later that it occurred to me that not everybody had a parent in the hospital that often.

Dad took the five of us out for golf and ice cream, then took us back home. I remember that we had a good time, that Dad beat all of us by at least 10 shots, and that the ice cream tasted wonderful.

In the years since then, nobody has given me a birthday party. There was even one year when everybody forgot my birthday. As the day wore on, I felt more sorry for myself and allowed myself to wallow in misery for a bit, then realized there was little good in that. It was at that point that I decided that, if nobody was going to throw a party for me, then maybe I'd better just do it myself.

I've thrown myself a few birthday parties since then. It's not quite the same, though, and I still keep holding out hope that somebody will throw me a party some day. Meanwhile, at least I get to pick out the flavor of my cakes!

[submissivewife]

Wow, That was so touching. I nearly cried. I can just see you all excited about going golfing and her first birthday part. Very well done!

[maddie]

Thank you.

[Rabbit1]

Very good maddie