The Gift of "Lives"

As part of its slogan, The American Red Cross refers to blood as the gift that keeps on giving or the gift of life.  However you look at it, blood is ,without a doubt, a very critical element to the vitality of one's life.  Equally, when one looks at blood lines, often times you can get an idea of an individual's traits from those ancestral connections.  Well, for one aging woman, her gift of life was to give her children theirs; now that she is turning the page on yet another year, it's time to sing Happy Birthday once more.

Four score and fourteen years ago, my grandparents celebrated the birth of of their second child, my mother.  Unfortunately for them, they had to endure the heartache of losing their first, so when my mother arrived, the tragedy of one life was replaced by the joy of another then another and another and another and another, but because of that birth order, my mother had assumed certain responsibilities that only the "oldest" would bear.  She was an example to her brothers, first as student and later as a wife and mother.  When I asked one of my uncles what they called my mother when they were younger, he said, "hey you'!  I believe that her childhood and later her education as a "Bacteriologist" prepared her well for the role of mother to 8 children.

As yet another year has elapsed, and for my mother, that number is now 94, all I can say is thank you and Happy Birthday.  She has unselfishly given of herself to others, both family and friends.  The gift of life may be blood, but for my mother, she has given the gift of "lives", ours, to my brothers, sisters, and me.  We love you, and we all wish you Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma/Great grandma!