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CTG Revisited

Addendum to "Happy Birthday"

The birthday lady changed her mind. She's not going to jump out of an airplane for #90 - instead, she's going up in a hot air balloon!

Happy Birthday

On Friday evening, I attended a surprise birthday party for a dear friend. She was 80 years old (or will be, this coming Friday). Her children planned the event a week early in order to surprise her, because she had been told long ago that they would give her a birthday party for her 80th birthday. She lives in an independent living complex, and because the party was to be held there (in the large dining room), someone had to get her out of the way while the guests were assembling. They did such a good job of getting her out of the way that she was over half an hour late. There was a good crowd there. And she was indeed surprised! Her children had been so elusive about the party recently that she was almost convinced they weren’t going to give her a party after all. It was tricky trying to get to talk to one of her children about it when she was around.

I don’t know how many people showed up, but the place was full. There were some poems honoring her, and a humorous one by one of her daughters that was a prayer to allow her to live just one more year, and then one more, etc., up to 89, then “I’ll be ready to go . . . maybe!” One couple played mandolin and guitar and sang some old songs. I can’t remember the first one they sang; the second one was about learning to love Jesus in grandma’s rocking chair. Then those of us who knew it were asked to join with them in the last song. I hadn’t heard – let alone sung – that song since I was in high school (I graduated in 1954), but as we sang, the words all came back to me. Anyone remember this?

Mockingbird Hill

When the sun in the morning peeps over the hill
And kisses the roses on my window sill,
Then my heart fills with gladness when I hear the trill
Of the birds in the treetops on Mockingbird Hill.

Chorus:
Tra-la-la, Tweedly-dee-dee, it gives me a thrill
To wake up in the morning to the mockingbird’s trill;
Tra-la-la, Tweedly-dee-dee, there’s peace and good will;
You’re welcome as the flowers on Mockingbird Hill.

Got a three-cornered plow and an acre to till,
And a mule that I bought for a ten dollar bill.
There’s a tumbledown shack and a rusty old mill,
But it’s my home, sweet home, up on Mockingbird Hill.

(Chorus)

When it’s late in the evening I climb up the hill
And survey all my kingdom while everything’s still –
Only me and the sky and a lone whippoorwill
Singing songs in the twilight on Mockingbird Hill.

(Chorus)

Then – one of the highlights of the evening – someone announced that the guest of honor had always wanted to ride a Harley. So, out they go to the parking lot (I stayed inside), and watched this lady ride on the back of her son-in-law’s Harley. Later on, she said that one of her grandsons said to her, “Don’t worry, Grandma, if you fall off, I’ll pick you up.” As I said, I didn’t see the event, but she had a picture of it at church Sunday. Presumably, the pastor is going to have a picture to put up on the screen this coming Sunday.

Now, she says that for her ninetieth birthday – with the disclaimer if she lives that long, and the Lord doesn’t come – she will jump out of an airplane. After saying this (I heard this from her twice), she immediately goes into an attitude of prayer, and says, “Oh, Lord, please come, so I won’t have to do that!”

Correction: She misunderstood what her grandson said; it turns out he said, "If you fall off I'll catch your teeth."