In response to Dancing Elephants Press Prompt week 40 of 52 — Love
My mother turned 85, and my cousin’s family celebrated her birthday while I was sound asleep.
That’s because I live Ocean’s away from my mom and there is 16 hours of time difference between us.
My cousin chose a day when everybody in her family (her husband, her children, and her son-in-law) was free from work. Before taking my mother to dinner, she and her family decorated their living room with balloons.
It has become customary for my cousin to take my mother for lunch or dinner once a month, so my mother had no second thoughts when my cousin suggested they stop by my cousin’s house for tea after the meal.
Then my mother saw the sea of balloons, even the number “85” displayed in the living room!
It was my mother’s first surprise birthday party.
I had never celebrated my mother’s birthday before. The only thing I could do in the last 29 years since I moved to the US was to call her on the phone or send her a short text message.
My cousin lives only a 15-minute drive away from my mother. Everyone in her family loves my mother and treats her as their own mother. Maybe 100 times more love than my love for my mother.
All I can do is fill my heart with gratitude and lots of love for my cousin and her family.
Thank you so much, Eri-chan.