A Birthday to Remember...

 

A Birthday to Remember…

2024

Most people are blessed on their birthdays,

and they are celebrated for their presence

and the Gift their life has been to others.

I have always wondered what that would be like.

Being celebrated just to be alive, being present,

and have a day of the year where my life,

my presence truly mattered to others.

But my birthdays have always been

unacknowledged. Days that are ignored

and brushed to the wayside, just another

day that is irrelevant and meaningless.

This birthday was spent cleaning up after an

elderly gentleman all day. What a way to

spend it. No one noticed, or even cared.

It has always been one sided. I always

remember everyone’s birthdays, anniversaries,

holidays and so forth, but mine goes by unnoticed.

Mine is silent. Just another day to make quite

clear that my presence has never mattered to anyone.

And this year, a mirror of last year (with the

exception of being inside this year) … were spent

taking care of Paul’s dad and cleaning up after him,

and the crap covered bathroom, doing his laundry.

The one positive about his dad is he is polite.

I realize how difficult it is for his dad to have a

female cleaning him and cleaning up after him.

I direct him to do what he can to help lessen

the effect of having me bathe and clothe him.

But the constant cleanup makes it a real

challenge to be grateful being here. I am

grateful, though. And having the reprieve,

however temporary it may be, from the

streets, fills my heart with gratitude.

Room and Board in exchange for taking

care of and cleaning up after his elderly father.

And though this was not the birthday I ever dreamed

of, it is finally one that is not spent on the streets,

and free of the endless harassment, and that is a Gift.

Even though my birthday continues in silence

with no acknowledgment, it is the first one in nearly

a Quarter of a Century where it

is inside.

A Birthday to remember.