Birthday (aka Anniversary: Number Two)

Part two of this delightful month was my thirty-first birthday. My last birthday ha me really freaked out about turning thirty. That got erased by my stroke four days before—so my birthday was mostly unconscious. I have a memory of nurses and friends singing and bringing a cake for my parents (I don’t think I had the feeding tube yet, but I couldn’t eat), but that’s brief and rather dreamlike. This birthday was MUCH better ;-) –I had dinner with my parents and got to see all of my friends who have really stuck with me. I even got to see my friend Amy, as a belated present, last weekend. I had such a wonderful time—she was my friend in Texas and visited me in the hospital constantly before I was moved to Toledo. It was nice to see people from my past (she was in Detroit for work, so I also saw a couple of other coworkers and my boss, briefly) that I had to give up so abruptly. It made me a little sad, because I miss that life, especially my job, but it really gave me a sense of closure that I wasn’t expecting. I’ve been grieving the loss and having it touch my present life made it more real and let me say goodbye. So, aside from some ridiculous friend drama, my birthday was really nice—another sort of stroke anniversary, but that one that was saved by the people I love.