My birthday was on Sunday. No big deal, really. When Darius was born five days before my 26th birthday, I was relieved that all of the focus of birthdays would shift to my darlingly dear son. Besides, once you have a baby as a birthday gift nothing else really compares.
Neville and I never put a lot of focus on celebrating each other's brithdays. When we met, we were poor college students. I was practically putting myself through school. My parents helped as much as they could, but it wasn't enough. I was an RA in the on-campus dormitories and worked part-time in the Housing Office. Most of my money went to school; whatever was left over was spent on my rather pathetic social life. Neville was trying to finish college in as little time as possible. Going to a tier 2 university and paying over $30K in a year in tuition, he was motivated to take extra classes every semester to try to graduate early and reduce his college loans as much as he possibly could.
Birthdays and Christmas and anniversaries and any and all other holidays were deemed to be gift-free. That's how I liked it, that's how I wanted to keep it. That's how it's been for the last nine years.
Until yesterday.
As I was plating dinner on Sunday night, Darius came over with a sweet little card. On the envelope, he drew a picture of the ocean (swirling blue scribbles) with a sandy beach (brown and yellow dots) under a bright yellow sun. I opened up the card and he had written (with very little help) in all capital letters:
HABPY BIRTHDAY MOMM. I LOVE YOU. DARIUS
It was so sweet. And he was so proud. It was the first card that he's ever made me on his own.
In the bottom of my birthday envelope, there were two quarters jingling. My child opened up his own piggy bank and pulled out two shiny quarters to give to me as a birthday present. The sweet gesture brought tears to my eyes.
My darlingly dear son found a way to top his birth as the best birthday present. Those two shiny quarters are now out of circulation. I will forever keep this card and this 50 cents as proof of the best gift ever.
