On April 7 ten family members ran in the Washington DC Cherry Blossom run . The night before the race the Constance Family hosted a pasta dinner gathering. And the next day, after the race, the Leibolds hosted a celebratory brunch. Both events were very special and brought back many happy memories. This race and the Marine Corps Marathon and track and cross country have quite a tradition in our family.
My brother Bud ran his first marathon at age 60 and my husband Jerry has been a triathlete. From North Carolina to New Jersey Jerry competed in some diverse triathlons. It was always exciting to be there cheering him on. It is no surprise that our five children like to run and the same can be said for our grandchildren – in varying degrees. We have some pretty good runners in the family.
Growing up on 224th Street in Laurelton, Long Island there were lots of children to play with. Aside from the usual kids games of hide and seek, tag, stickball, roller skating, etc., the layout of the street was very conducive to running races which eventually morphed into running around the block. Or you could go half way around the block and cut through the vacant lot behind our house into our backyard and reach the finish line that way. I did pretty well in the running races- both the full race and the half way around race. It was only in my very early teen years when I was starting to develop an interest in boys that I also started to question the value of winning these races. Some of the boys were not very fast.
The all girls high school that I attended did not offer track as an extra curricular activity. And in my four semesters at Marymount College in New York City before moving on to Cornell University’s BS Nursing program, I only had time for one extra curricular activity and I chose the Collegiate Council for the United Nations. But I never lost my love of running or my respect for the importance of exercise.
The month of April was birthday time for our firstborn daughter Maura and for me. When I was pregnant with Maura it was back in the day when you did not find out the sex of the baby till their actual birth. I was hoping for a girl since our first child was a boy – appropriately named after his father. When Maura was born I was beside myself with happiness that we now had a son and a daughter . She was fifteen months younger than her brother Jerry who was just starting to show an interest in walking. Of our five children three did not walk alone till they were eighteen months. The other two were walking at about a year.
At first I wanted our baby number two to be born on my birthday but when Maura came ten days earlier I was alright with that. Birthdays are very special and each person in a nuclear family deserves their own time of celebration.
When we had our five children in just a little under six years we became very focused on making each individual birthday celebration special. Starting when the children were of an age where their birthdays had special meaning for them, each child had a family party, a friend party and dinner out by themselves with Mom and Dad. And we introduced the birthday questions. To this day we still do the birthday questions and we have a family party.
This year Meg, Atar, and Liam came from Pennsylvania for my birthday celebration. Their gift was to prepare the birthday meals for my celebration. I was given two yummy birthday dinners. The first completely prepared by Atar featured a yummy shrimp and broccoli combination that was from a New York Times recipe. The second was a ratatouille and beet salad prepared by Meg. Dessert was an amazing carrot cake (my favorite) made from scratch by Atar. And there were chocolate chip cookies which Liam has become quite the expert at putting together. And there was amazing raisin bread made from scratch by Atar.
Being able to celebrate with the Mac Curtins, the Jim Fergusons, and the Constance Family was a total blessing. And the blessing was magnified by texts and phone calls from far away family and friends. And following our family tradition I was asked the birthday questions. Perhaps the greatest benefit of these questions is the family love that prompts them and the focus they put on what each of us values in life.
The birthday questions: What is the best thing that happened to you in the past year? What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? What do you want to be when you grow up? What is your spirit animal? The spirit animal question was probably added in the last ten years and that has been a fun addition. Maybe one day I will blog on my answers to these questions.
My birthday festival was nicely brought to a close by a Tuesday night dinner at the Cafe Renaissance with my brother Pete and his wife Louise. This has become a favorite for us, half way between both our homes.
With nineteen grandchildren sometimes we have a fair number of graduations falling at about the same time but this year there has only been one – Khushi graduating from Mary Washington College. We are very proud of her. She has headed up COAR – a student run service program. Khushi received special recognition from the university for her outstanding leadership of this organization.
Today has been a misty , rainy day. I was able to get a little gardening in, in between the rain drops. Am looking forward to the flowers I hope will be the result of today’s endeavors. A quote that resonates with me is one I recently read by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The Earth laughs in flowers”.
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