Happy Birthday Kath, I bet your Mom is cooking all your favourites and I hope you have a wonderful day.
I feel a little stronger now, better able to deal with the world, better able to handle the memories, good and bad.
There are still dark times but I know you have a way of staying in touch, even kinda sorta answering requests and that keeps me going.
Your answers may not be specifically what I ask for but they always seem to be what I need, better in fact.
So I will be dining at the Mandarin as you seem to have arranged, and it will be nice to see my very unexpected dinner companion.
I wish we could keep that date together as we had hoped but something tells me you’ll be there.
Let me know how the cake is in heaven, do you cook to earthly standards just for the heck of it or can you simply wish the best cake ever?
It’s OK you can lie and pretend it’s not as good as I used to make.
So Happy Birthday Shortcake. I hope you stuff your face with cake.
This world can never be the same, but I always remind myself it’s not forever.
We’ll make up for all of our broken dates and live all our postponed dreams in time.
PS. There is a backstory to the Mandarin, a coincidence that just seems too “arranged” to be mere coincidence that will see me keep a date Kath and I were unable to. Perhaps we’ll enjoy a serving of healing on the side.
PPS. The pic is Kath boarding a flight to NYC, another of my bad shots that seem to work.
(And I bumped the post a bit to a morning slot. It’s her day.)
