The Middle Piece

When serving a cake, I think the best piece is one from the middle of the cake. It is fresh on all sides, with no burned edges.

Yesterday was my birthday and I became 57 years old. I married Glenn when I was 39, just shy of my 40th birthday. I didn't get to celebrate a lifetime of birthdays with him as some are lucky enough to do, but I feel like I got a precious "middle piece."  

When you are young there are so many pressures. Finding a job, buying a house, having babies...it is a wonderful and exhausting juggling act that I witness my own children experiencing in their lives right now. It is special, but it is not easy. Sometimes the edges are burned and crusty.

My parents were married 63 years. I envy that, but the edges got crusty for them  too as their health and mobility declined. 

The part of my life that Glenn and I shared was like the middle piece of a cake. We weren't young, but we weren't old either. When we married, my kids were young but not babies and his children were adults.  We got to share a lot of milestones-marriages, divorces, births and deaths- in our family together. 

Yesterday was strange, as is every day of my life right now. Ironically the only time I teared up was when Henry and Ryan finished watching the movie "Hercules". Michael Bolton sang the the theme song; in the early days, G and I loved his music. He sang a lot of "our" songs.

When I got up yesterday, I envisioned what would have been occurred had he still been with me. I always got up earlier than him,but since it was my birthday he would have made a point to get up soon after he realized I was awake.   He would have come into the living room and in a LOUD falsetto voice said, "Happy Bird-day to YOU!" There would not have been massive presents, cards or flowers (because I controlled the checkbook :), but there would have been a ton of loving gestures. And laughter , as he declared it un-officially my birthday when I went to bed. Which translated that he was off good -deed duty. It was so fun to be married to him.

 

As it was, it was a wonderful day surrounded by laughter and the love of my children and grandsons.

I am so blessed to still be cutting from the middle of the cake.