Thursday 22 June 2017

An unwanted birthday!

On the whole I don't look back too often but just now I am remembering old birthdays.....
Getting to be forty was bad. I didn't feel old but passing forty felt as though a line had been crossed somewhere.
My husband worked in Manchester and on the day we booked lunch at our favourite restaurant. I waited for him at our table and eventually a waiter appeared with a message. He couldn't get away from the office...sorry.
I opted not to eat alone but somehow my worst fears were realised...I was old.
Going to the shops later I wanted to buy something outrageous but nothing caught my eye. Eventually the best I could do was to buy some bright red nail varnish. When my husband got home I had painted every nail about my person.
It made me feel better, not quite so old....fighting back a little....
I can't remember my fiftieth but achieving 60 was memorable. My husband had died two months earlier. To say I was miserable was an understatement.
My girl friends took me out.
We went to a lovely restaurant called "The blue strawberry" it was very trendy in Essex and they showered me with presents....a pink pension book cover, woolly socks, a hairnet, dozens of age related gifts. all wrapped beautifully....the rest of the diners were entranced and so was I ....we laughed an awful lot and I shall always be grateful to them.
By the time I reached seventy I had been priested and was still finding my way around the various churches on the Roseland. I have no memory of the actual day!
Becoming eighty is no fun at all. I have told everyone that it's not a cause for celebration. I am going out to lunch with three very kind friends. Cards are now appearing and so are flowers...the house looks wonderful.
All I have to do now is plan my ninetieth! Pass the purple nail varnish!


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6 comments:

Unknown said...

Why is it an "unwanted birthday"?

I want to celebrate EVERY one I get. The more the merrier. :-) :-) :-)

Revjeanrolt said...

It's just having to admit to being 80!

Ray Barnes said...

Have a very very happy birthday Jean (despite your best efforts).
Blink and it'll be over.
I can say from experience that 80 is nothing.
I'll tell you the same when you reach 90🙃

PixieMum said...

Ten years past three score years and ten is good, celebrate too all the ministering you undertake to your parishioners and to your readers.

UKViewer said...

Birthdays become forgettable the older you get. But others, loved ones remember them for you. I know that you have lost so many in recent years, but perhaps remembering the memories that you shared will bring some joy.

And God has a plan for you. And you are living it out as an example to the rest of us. Priest, teacher of the faith, preserving the memories of a life lived to the full, with all of the ups and downs.

The value that I place on reading your posts is enormous. Because you are so open and transparent, you give us inspiration in how to face vulnerability head on and to abide within it as you abide within Jesus Christ.

I said happy birthday on yesterday's blog and was pleased to see Arwen's tweet wishing you a happy birthday on twitter. How many thousands have seen that and thought about you yesterday?

Keep on, keeping on. You persevere and as St Paul tells us that facing all and to persevere in faith is to be blessed by Jesus each and every day.

Bring on the 90th, when I will be 77 by then.

Rat Bites said...

All of the above - and impressed you were let become a priest at an age people rarely acknowledge anyone can be useful. God has certainly proved otherwise in you!
Live long and prosper, as another friend often quotes. God bless x