MY GOLDEN DAY REALLY GLITTERED...

MY GOLDEN DAY REALLY GLITTERED... 

It was a date I’d been anxious about - 23^rd October 1999. The day I turned fifty.

           Ever since my 49^th birthday I had been visualising this day.  Wondering how I would face it - with joy or apprehension?  Then I started thinking about how I would celebrate it.  At first I fantasised about giving myself a royal birthday treat with a holiday in Australia. That way I could also spend the occasion with my closest friend who lives in Melbourne. However an unexpected surgery in June put paid to that plan – both my health and purse went on a downslide! As an alternative, I then planned to arrange a big bash for my near and dear ones.  When numbers came to over two hundred, I had to give that idea the go by.  While I was thrilled to count so many among my ‘near and dear’, the thought of organising a celebration of such magnitude, not to mention the lack of space in my home, almost gave me a seizure.  So I finally let things drift and decided to tackle the day when it came.  Perhaps in my usual annual tradition, I thought, I would just keep open house for whoever remembered to drop by.

            A few days before the golden day, greeting cards started drifting in.  Some were from contemporaries who were slightly behind me in age, rubbing it in that I could now look forward to faltering steps, failing eyesight and falling teeth. Others who were slightly ahead of me, consoled me with the fact that one acquired a maturity and mellowness not experienced before.  I would cease being the firebrand I had been hitherto - I would learn patience, tolerance, sensitivity in greater measure. Well, these were certainly attributes I looked forward to acquiring.  My other more diplomatic friends just wished me well!

The big day finally dawned.  I must admit I did have a somewhat restless night before, wondering how I would feel when I woke up ‘fifty.’  Fortunately I did not get a chance for this, as I received a very early morning call from a friend of forty-one years acquaintance, who now lives in the USA.  A truly pleasant start to the day!  Thereafter calls kept pouring in from friends in other parts of the world as suited their time zones, and from local friends too. By the middle of the morning, floral tributes started streaming in. One was accompanied by a card almost as big as I!  The flower arrangements were exotic, consisting of a variety of artistic creations. With each incoming arrangement, my house looked more beautiful and colourful, and my heart thrilled at the sight, which lasted a whole week thereafter. I was also so touched at being made to feel so special.   Personal well-wishers dropped in all day and through the evening.  I was showered with good wishes, flowers and gifts – among them loads of chocolates, reminding me that a sweet tooth was a sign of old age?! At 10 pm the last of my guests left.  I lay in bed after the excitement and thrills of the day, revelling in my own sweet thoughts of gratitude for the greetings, gifts and flowers I had received from fifty one personal callers and others from near and far.  I felt so rejuvenated on that day, surrounded as I was by so much warmth and affection.

 If this is the way milestones in one’s life are celebrated, I just can’t wait for the next –only a few months away. And so when I turn 60 coming October, health permitting I plan a ‘BIG BASH’, to say ‘thanks’ to all the wonderful people in my life, who  encourage me when I’m down and uplift me when I’m back on course. Till then, I shall savour the memories of my Golden Birthday.