(Cue the music, the hula dancer, and the breaking wave...)
Yesterday was my big five-oh.
When I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was two, my mother was told I would be lucky to see my 16th birthday. However, my mother was an RN who had been trained at a nursing school associated with the Mayo Clinic, and had been there when the clinic was doing diabetes studies. In addition, her mother was Polish to the core, so you never gave Mom a challenge she didn't want to hear. So here I am having beaten that deadline 3 times over, and while my health could be better, I have not been a victim of most diabetic side effects of kidney failure, blindness, and loss of digits.
I have always have had fix feelings about the timing of my birthday. Because of its proximity to Thanksgiving, my family often moved the celebration to the holiday so I've had turkeys and pumpkin pies with candles on them. (Parents, if you have children whose birthdays are close to holidays please keep the birthday distinct from the holiday and special in its own right. In my case, the birthday was celebrated second to the holiday so the special-ness was lost).
My worst birthday was my sixth. It was the day after November 22, 1963.
But now after a half century of life, I can appreciate how blessed I have been. I've seen men on the moon, I have been involved with personal computers from the beginning, and I had one of the first money machine cards. I can also proudly say I have never owned a cell phone! (although my phone service is over the Internet. Geek 2 da core!) I have seen my nieces and nephews grow from mere gleams in their parents' eyes to fine young men and women. And I've earned every grey hair in my beard!
Will I see another 50? God alone knows, although my doctors are pestering me into lifestyle changes so I may get the chance.
