Someone asked me this past weekend if I was going to celebrate Claire’s birthday in a couple of weeks. My initial reaction was, of course — why wouldn’t I? But then I got o thinking, that It was a legitimate question. As I thought about it, I guess many people’s thoughts about birthdays are that they are a mark that someone’s grown a year older. When someone has a birthday, most people, besides offering congratulations or something like that, often ask how old the person celebrating their birthday is. It’s like birthdays are celebrated because on that exact day that a person was born, they’ve made it another year.
So — if birthdays are about years lived, does that mean they should end after a person dies? My answer is no — their birthday is always their birthday. In part to keep my extensive research skills up, I looked up the definition of birthday. It’s interesting that none of the dictionaries I checked, made much mention of the passage of time or the accumulation of years. Most just defined a birthday as the day of a person’s birth, or the anniversary of their birth. Those continue to exist after a person dies.
Back to the original question — although she’s not here physically, she’s still a big part of me and it’s still her birthday. So when June 13th rolls around, I’m going to celebrate!
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