Monday, October 26, 2015

A special birthday gift

Our view of the lake this late October morning shows the shockingly low the water level. After a record-breaking dry summer the lake is the lowest it has been in more than 25 years. We could probably walk across the "Boot" from one side to the other if we didn't get stuck in the mud. The photo above shows high muddy ground where water should be. We're looking forward to January and a full lake again.

This is always a reflective time of year for me because I celebrate another birthday. Seventy-two years ago, on the day of my birth, Grandma and Grandpa Benedetti and my aunts and uncles each thought of me for a moment because they got the news that I was born. My birthday seemed like a good day to visit their grave sites at the nearby Black Diamond Cemetery.

I paused at each of their headstones, pulled a few weeds and stood by Grandma and Grandpa for a prayer and one verse of Holy God We Praise Thy Name. I thanked them for living so that I might live. I felt close to them as I remembered each one.

As I was walking back to the car, I was contemplating that I have lived 72 years! That seems so long. I know Grandma was 98 when she died but I wondered how old grandpa was. When I got into the car I tried to do the math of 1950 less 1866 with my finger on the steering wheel but couldn’t so I reached for my cell phone intending to find the calculator icon. I pulled the phone out of my purse, looked at the black screen and touched the button at the bottom to bring up the Home Screen so I could search for the calculator (which I never use). However, immediately after I touched the bottom button, the next screen image was the Calculator, open and ready to go.

WHHHAATT?? Who opened it for me? Grandma? My Aunt Evie or Aunt Nita? I sat staring at it for a minute trying to understand what just happened. I've heard spirits can communicate through electronics (as Ida the Ghost did at the Glidden House where I stayed in Cleveland) but cell phones? Hmmm...

I wanted to hold onto the moment; to share and document the experience with someone who knows me well, so before heading home I called my daughter, then my sister. At home, I told Jay what happened. He said, "Consider it a birthday gift." So I am!

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