34 Years ago today, my husband was brought into the world, in an experience traumatic for both mother and son. Thankfully, they both lived to tell the tale, and it’s a birth story I’ll never forget, next to my own birth stories. If that wasn’t enough, less than a month later little baby Daniel had to go BACK to the hospital for a Staph Infection. The poor man got a rough start in life. But I’m thankful he lived to tell the tale.
Though the years we’ve spent together, birthdays have never been a big deal for Daniel. Really I can only remember him planning out 2 of his birthdays doing what he wanted to do. When he turned 21 we went to the casino, cause I mean come on your only 21 once. And another one was a few years later we took a family vacation with my cousin. Other than that, he likes his birthdays relatively simple, and always has the years I’ve known him.
I on the other hand, try to plan out the day like it’s a national holiday. Cause in the eyes of my kids and I, it might as well be. Last year, on his birthday he was under the knife getting his arm fixed. This year, he’s at work. But this year, it’s actually perfect that he’s at work because the kids and I had a plan. Between all of us, we had a plan to declutter and get the house as clean as we possibly could. The things he placed that don’t belong but haven’t found a home yet, was going to find at least a temporary home.
This required some pre-planning to, things such as making his cheesecake the day before, that way I have as few dishes as possible on his birthday. We already had dinner planned that night, bacon cabbage rice, with not 2 but 3 pounds of bacon in it. As it got closer to when he should be home, I monitored his location, putting on his favorite playlist as background music as he walked in, with his sweatpants laid out on the bed waiting for him, and an Ice cold sparkling water.
See, this man is simple. Like the simplest of simple. I know that alone would make his day. He’s got his kids, his favorite meal, his chosen birthday cake, a clean home and his family. Every year, when I express feeling bad that I can’t go above and beyond, he tells me the same thing. ‘Keep it simple, I don’t need anything special, bacon and you guys is all I want”
But see, in our eyes, he deserves the world. He fought cancer like a champion, and is constantly thinking about how he can bring home enough money at the end of the day to give us all we want in life. He is the one currently breaking his back, working early or late hours in the heat, or sometimes the freezing cold. Most Days he skips a lunch because he can work more and get done sooner to come back to his family.
Happy Birthday Daniel. You deserve the world, but hopefully a clean house, with a nice dinner, your favorite dessert, and being surrounded by your wife and kids makes your birthday extra special. Happy Birthday