Happy Birthday Mom! Today would have been Norma’s 88th birthday. I remember once many years ago in 1989 or 1990 when I had put all of my birthdays into a computerized calendar for the first time. I had been so proud that now I could appear to be very thoughtful by remembering everyone’s birthday. I missed some the first year because their dates had already passed.
The next year I picked Bill up at the airport on April 13 and reminded him to call his mom to say happy birthday. We hadn’t been married long and I didn’t know Norma well or I would have made the call myself. We had a cell phone which wasn’t very common at the time so I suggested he call her before it got to late in Tulsa. We were in PA at the time and it was around 10:00 pm.
I hear him say “Happy birthday Mom.” There was silence on Bill’s end and then he began to laugh. When he disconnected he told me that she said “Thank you son but aren’t you a little late? My birthday was a month and a day ago!”
I felt really bad. When we returned home I looked at my calendar and when the new year came the calendar had moved all of the saved recurring dates forward one month plus one day!
The really bad thing is that she was his mom and he didn’t know the difference!