Monday's Musings - My Birthday Miracle

My Birthday Miracle

Hi! I’m back! My shoulder is mending well this time. I still have to build up strength, which will happen over the next few months. But I’m doing well. And happy to be back! So let me tell you a little story about a miracle that happened while I was recovering. . .

I wasn’t looking forward to my birthday this year at all. I don’t care about my age. That wasn’t it.

What was hard was that it was my first birthday without my mom. Not only that, but she and daddy used to always call and sing me the funniest rendition of happy birthday EVER.

You see, my mom had a beautiful voice. Well, used to. Until her stroke 11 years ago. Then, her singing was, well, it was different. My dad has never had good pitch. And once mom didn’t have so much control over her voice, it cracked. While they were on the phone singing to me, they would get off key and would break into giggles and laugh at themselves. Then, daddy would sing even louder, off key, just to make mom laugh. The whole way through the song! It was the highlight of my birthday each year.

Last year on my birthday, my husband and I drove up to be with my parents who were both hospitalized for different reasons. They were in different rooms so they weren’t able to sing to me. I didn’t want to be anywhere else on my birthday than with them. Little did I know, it was my last birthday with my mom. But we did joke about being in a hospital together many years ago for my birth during a city-wide, blizzard-induced blackout. Actually, it was an entire East Coast blizzard. And about my poor mom having to walk five flights of stairs in labor. . .

Which brings me to this year’s birthday. After mom passed away, I realized I would never again hear them call, sing me “Happy Birthday”, and break into fits of giggles and laughter at how they sounded.  

You see, I had never recorded it because I waited for their call each year and always picked up when I saw their names. I mentioned this to my sister not long after mom died. I couldn’t believe how much them calling and singing to me meant.

So my sister quietly started on a quest. About five years ago, mom and dad had missed her birthday and called her late to sing to her. But she missed the call. So she had a recording of them singing to her. On her cell phone. Which she no longer has. But before the voice mail went away, she got out her video camera and recorded them singing. But she didn’t mark it. For months, she’d put in tape after tape and forward through it, stopping to look for this elusive 30 second clip.

Then, on my birthday, at 10:00 p.m., my sister called. She asked if she could play me something that would make me cry. I laughed and said I had already cried enough that day and I’d be fine.

That’s when the miracle happened. She had just found the message. I got to hear my mom and dad sing “Happy Birthday”. On my birthday.

I have never laughed and cried so hard at one time!

My day was complete.

God knew how much I would need that this year. So, for whatever reason, mom and dad missed my sister’s birthday one year. And left her a voice mail on a different day.  They may have chided themselves for forgetting.  But look at the good He brought out of that!

I’m learning to trust that God knows what he’s doing. Especially in the midst of this difficult season in my life. He does love me.

And he loves you too.

P. S. And yes, she marked the tape clearly and now I have that message recorded on my phone as well . . .