08/26/2026
"Happy Birthday to Me"
Balloons, banners, roses, hat, cakeβ¦looks like I had a birthday! I sure did celebrate my birthday on August 21. We all remember looking forward to our birthdays in our younger years. I so recall being thrilled to turn 13 because I was officially out of childhood. And all of the big ones: 18, 21, 25, 30, 40. Oh, how the years go by. I remember crying when the cake was brought out at my 50th birthday family dinner. Wow, to be 50!
But here I am, turning 69. Iβm not totally sure how this happened. I actually went into the paper file and checked my birth certificate to just be sure there was no error.
In January I underwent an emergency open heart surgery that saved my life. No hints, no prepping, no nudges, just boom! One moment Iβm moving along merrily in life and then Iβm not.
I am amazingly thankful to acknowledge a birthday. Would I rather have turned 49 or 59? Perhaps. But I celebrate with gratitude and I celebrate a number that my father, two brothers, and other dear family members and friends never saw. Iβll take it. Iβll take it, along with the crowβs feet and wrinkled hands. Iβve earned them.
~ Rebecca Hendrixson, Wellness Wednesday