Sunday, February 6, 2005

No matter, alerts of this aren`t working anyway...


Before I left for Germany, when I was ten years old, my family had an early birthday party for my brother and me…who knew when we would be home again? My grandmother decorated a huge cake, with one side of it with Smurfs (for me J ), and the other side of it with a UK wildcat (for my brother)…

We got lots and lots of presents that day. One of my presents was a tape recorder…one of those huge black and silver things… On that day, with my family all together for the last time in what would be years, I made all of them speak into the recorder and record a special message for me.

I took that tape with their special message with me to Germany, where I kept it for all three years I was there, and whenever I was desperately homesick for my family I would play it…

The message was simple: It was my mom, my brother, my grandma, my grandpa, my aunt, my great-aunt…everybody recorded the same thing… 

"I love you, Michelle…"
"I love you, Michelle…"
"I love you, Michelle…"

I no longer have the tape, but I can still hear it, in my head…

Today, my family had an early birthday party for me (my birthday is actually Monday)…They called me into the kitchen, and I walked in to the crowd of people, my mom, my grandparents, my brother and sister-in-law and nephew, my daughter, my aunts, my boyfriend…

I knelt down to blow out the candles on my cake…

And I realized that all the people that had left me the messages on my tape so long ago were still right here…

I nearly cried as I realized how blessed I was, that over twenty years later, I’m still a member of this wonderful, sometimes maddening, always loving family,

And they were able to tell me again, today, that they loved me…

Instead of a wish for something I didn’t have, this year, before blowing out the candles, I just thanked God…for everything.

3 comments:

  1. What a cool entry... I'm glad you stopped by my Journal tonight because apparently my alerts aren't working for you :( I didn't get an alert for this entry, or the one before it... but I am getting alerts.. so what gives???? The mysteries of AOL <shaking head> Oh, and Happy Birthday!
    http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful entry!!  Happy Birthday Michelle and many many more!!
    *hugs*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Am thinking I'm going to like your journal :o)
    I'll add you to my alerts, and just hope they are working again!
    The smurf cake made me smile!!
    Sara   x

    ReplyDelete