Happy Birthday to Me
As
the title of this post suggests, today is my birthday. To be precise, I’m
turning fifty-three today. I stopped paying real attention to my birthdays some
years ago. After all, age is just a number and the older I get the more I feel
my mental age is falling ever further behind the numerical reality.
This
particular birthday is different though for two, strongly related, reasons.
My
mother was fifty-three years young when she unexpectedly died. To put it in
very blunt terms; if I live another five months I’ll be older than she ever got
to be. This idea is both scary and devastatingly sad. I don’t think I truly
knew how young fifty-three actually is until I reached the age myself.
This
year also marks the moment in time when I will have had as many years with my
mother as I’ve had without her. It is strange to think that from this year
forward I will have lived ever more years without her love and support.
So
yeah, this particular birthday is not as easy and festive as others have been
and future birthdays will hopefully be. Having said that, my mother would be
the first to tell me not to dwell on the negatives but to embrace the positives
instead. With that in mind I’ve decided to turn today into a celebration.
As
you may know, I am Dutch and in the Netherlands we have this wonderful
tradition where people give a special treat to others on their birthday. This
usually takes the form of cake or something edible along those lines. Since it
is not possible to share sweet treats over the internet I’ve decided to do
something else.
A
few days ago I received my author paperback copies of Scenes from Adelaide Road
from Pride Publishing. To celebrate my birthday I will be gifting one signed
copy away. In order to win it, all you need to do is leave a comment on this blog
post below. I’m happy to send the book to wherever the winner happens to live, so location won’t be an issue. Please leave a way for me to contact you with
your comment. I’ll be picking a random winner on Sunday, January 31st.
Good
luck and Happy Birthday to Me!
