Happy Birthday

[Mommy]

Dearest Michael,

It  is quiet this year. Lots of time to think about you and to relive the past. No, think about the past. We cannot relive anything. I wish we could. But quiet is good. I saw you at our table tonight, with Dad and me, our Christmas Eve dinner. A far cry from the many years with so many filling all the chairs around the table. Why didn't we celebrate your birthday on the 23rd, the night before when we did all the "work?" We toasted you last night as Dad and I remembered all that led up to your birth at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

This is a year of panic, oh I mean pandemic. Same thing. We are all wearing masks and trying not to get Covid 19, they call it. It is a virus that can be deadly for older people, especially those with underlying conditions. So we have stayed in our house for the past 10 months, with few exceptions.

It has been a year since we have seen Katie. Baby Charlotte turned one year old in November. I didn't get to hold her as an infant since we left two weeks after she was born. Finn turned three and Sophia is seven. I don't know what we would do without Face Time. Sophia reads to me the books she is writing and Finn takes me on rides in his Fire Truck. Katie and Peter produced three fabulous children, Grandma's prejudice aside. I know you would think so, too, and you would have so much fun playing with them. They would love you so much, and you them.

I can't not think about what your life on Earth would be now, especially as I see just about everyone of your friends married and most with children. I know you would have been a good father. I also know you were needed where you are now. God called you home. 

O Christmas, merry Christmas,

Has it really come again,

With its memories and greetings,

With its joy and with its pain!        Frances Ridley Havergal

 Christmas this year is especially hard.

 I miss you so much, Michael. Happy Birthday.

I love you,

 Mommy