Loose Leaf Notes

“We’re not going to have any candles because we don’t blow out candles during Covid,” Simone said as she presented Alwyn with her strawberry topped birthday cake celebrating her 95^th birthday.

There were four different “happy birthday” songs sung to her, beginning with one from her Goddaughter Cambria who drove from NC for the celebration.

Her dear friend Paula sang one she learned at a Sufi Dance… “God danced the day you were born / The angels did the bump to Gabriel’s horn / God danced the day you were born / So grateful for the gift of you.”

Ann sang one with some yodel to it, and the traditional Happy Birthday was also sung.

There were cards to read and presents to open. Still making us laugh, at one point Alwyn joked to Cambria who brought flowers, “you didn’t bring me an elephant?” When she opened a gift, a book about the tree sitters that have protested the Mountain Valley Pipeline, written by our mutual friend Mara Robbins, she commented on the name Mara. It’s the same one as the cause she has taken up to help protect elephants, the MARA Elephant Project, the one that Ann asked Alwyn’s Facebook friends to donate to as a gift to Alwyn.

She looked like an angel or a queen with her long white hair and shawl, and also like a rock star when she put her sunglasses on.

“Of all the wonderful things that have happened today, and they are wonderful, every one of you is a real blessing, but above all, the mystery is the blessing that God has given today in this beautiful day for my birthday.” The sun was shining and it was warm  on Alwyn’s patio, where her blue Earth Flag prominently hung.

She pointed to each person and called them a blessing and spoke of who they were to her. When she got to me, I said, “I’m your blogger,” but she heard “biographer,” and I laughed and answered, “that works too!”

Responding to all the fun loving attention, she said, “I’m only 95,” as if it was  no big accomplishment.

HERE is the post from Alwyn’s 93rd 2019 birthday celebration, which was also my review or her poetry book Remembering Their Names: A Gathering Time. We skipped 2020 because of COVID.