The Birthday Boy

What a rotten sister I am.

Today is my brother's 71st birthday and I completely forgot to call him and sing the birthday song. Bummer.

Not only that but the card I sent probably won't get there until tomorrow which is, clearly, NOT his birthday so I blew that too.

I had every intention of calling when Suzy and Thom got home from work so we could all sing together; I must have thought of it six times during the day but then it was gone from my head when it should have been foremost at 5:30.

My thinking was, I'd call when we could sing as a group because I'd stand a much better chance of not crying through the song that way. In all previous years it's
always been Tom and me together happy birthday-ing to him and I was afraid my voice, alone, would be too hard for both me AND Bud to bear.

I'd blame Tom's death for muddling me but that's not really fair. Truth is, my mind was a sieve long before that happened.

Bud deserves better.

I hope to God my sister Toot remembered and DID call. I'd give it a 50-50 chance of having happened because, frankly, she's just about as demented as I am myself!

At 71 he is definitely the best-looking sibling. He seems to be getting younger while I just get older and more feeble!? What's up with that???

Men wear so much better than we women. Why IS that, I wonder....

He's a rock, the brother. There have been a fair share of ups and downs in his life but in the main he's weathered all storms with aplomb. I appreciate his steadiness and calm.

It probably true that I'm more upset about forgetting to call than he would ever feel at being temporarily forgotten.

He's got a great immediate family surrounding him with love. Sure hope they picked up my slack today!!

Its a dirty job but somebody's got to do it.