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 . . .
