What a day and a weekend it has been! Diane has celebrated her 60th birthday in style. Last Saturday evening she thought she was going to a quiet family meal out with Matthew, our son, and Sarah his fiancée. As they welcomed us into the hotel they led Diane through a curtain to where they said their 'table' was. Behind that curtain 35 relatives and friends lay in wait to greet her with cries of 'happy birthday' and 'surprise!!' It certainly was a surprise. Diane and I have never had a secret (except one other - remind me to tell you about it some time) so she turned to me with an exclamation that could have been mouthed by Hattie Jacques in the sixties sitcom 'Eric Sykes' - 'Oh Eric!' I wondered if I would be spending the night in the shed. It was very cold that night so I hoped not, and as it turned out all was well! She was delighted and blessed by so many people who are dear to us both and we spent a wonderful evening just being grateful that we are both still alive!
Today (the 17th Jan) is her actual birthday and so the house is full of flowers, cards, balloons and gifts. Some very dear friends, knowing her love of all things homely and made of china, gave her this tea set in which each piece is labelled 'joy' 'hope' or 'peace'. Others have clubbed together to give her a travel voucher, so I don't know where she will end up! All in all a tremendous experience and a great start to a new decade.
Our forties were really hard, marred by my serious ill health. Our fifties were just as tough as we laboured together through over 60 hospital admissions and countless operations. Boy are we looking forward to our sixties! (You realise, of course, that I married an older woman - but not by much!).
Happy Birthday wonderful lady!
