My Rockin' 72nd Birthday Party

It is 17 degrees and sunny with a light haze over the island. I am still in recovery mode after my rocking Saturna Island 72nd birthday party hosted by my angel baby girl Chaya and her partner Rick.

She invited a local baker named Gord who commutes to the island from Victoria and sometimes works near Priscilla at the island bakery and he arrived with a fiddle under his arm. He played a combination of jigs and popular songs with precision and a real feel for the music. His smile and charming manner were infectious. I felt the spirit of my dad in the music he played and he seemed to sense that.

Bettianne baked and brought a “thunder and lightning” pair of sponge white and rich chocolate cakes with the numbers 72 spelled out in the candle placement. I got cheers for acing the blowout of them.

Priscilla greeted me with a kiss on the lips and told me her daughter Jesse [who is working in Victoria] sent her love.

Joel and Emily Bettianne's two young charges also came and who knew Emily could step-dance…but the fiddle and guitar inspired her to do so. Joel and Emily also drew up a handwritten birthday greeting with a nice note inside complimenting and thanking me for our friendship.

Dylan and Charlotte not to be left out drew me cards and each gave me gifts of a wrapped green apple in plain white paper; little jewels of love.

And I was inspired by the energy of the night to try and both play and sing…not too successfully but the recorded iPhone images by Chaya do me a real justice. Chaya told me today she stayed up late and did some editing to enhance the sound {and look} of the music [videos posted on Chaya's Face Book page.]

Everyone there had a great time and Chaya prepared a Greek dinner to die for…all the fixings and working into the wee hours with a happy smile on her face.

I asked her to lead the grace with The Prayer of St Francis [Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace] from a hand-written copy brought over by Dick earlier this week. So even though he and Annie had returned to Hawaii for the short term, he was present in his gift.

I saw that it made a very positive impact on our guests.

Chaya shed tears reading the prayer both to learn it and again during her actual reading, tears of grace to be sure.

Unbelievably she and Rick are heading to another birthday party out at East Point tonight…three ladies turning 75!!!

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