Happy Birthday, Mary Beth!

Sweet Mary Sunshine,

I know that you are no great lover of birthdays. And I know that you face this day as you’ve faced the last ten days—with a very heavy heart, but I want to stop a moment and talk about the miracle of you.

You burst into our lives in a flurry of pink. It’s hard to remember that once you were the “little sister, “ so well do you play the role of big sister. But once, you were the baby. I remember one day, when you were about three months old, catching a glimpse of you sitting in your carseat on the kitchen floor. We were just about to leave house and I was gathering the big boys (they were little then). The light played across the floor and caught your face in a halo. Perfect little girl.

That moment is still bright in my memory. I think about it all the time. I saw so clearly the gift you are, the girl you’d be. Pure love shining in the light in the center of our home.

God is so good!

“They say” that mothers should not try to be their daughters’ best friends. And, of course, they are absolutely right. Mothers should, however, endeavor to raise their daughters to be the kind of women they would choose as best friends. And one day, a girl becomes a young woman and her mother sees that that young women is indeed her best friend.

Thank you for being the best friend I could ever hope to have.

I love you.

Mama