Fast forward quite a few years…. Gran had reason to apply for her birth certificate, which she had never seen before. It arrived through the post after a few weeks and that’s when Gran had her first glimpse that something wasn’t quite as she thought…. her birthday was in fact on the 19th of December- a week earlier that what her sisters had told her! She had a good laugh thinking back over the years when she was Lena the little Christmas baby.
Gran decided that moving forward she would celebrate her actual birthday on the 19th, and we all agreed…. apart from her son Tommy, and so it began, Gran had two birthdays, a week apart, double presents, double cards and double cake.
I think about it now and of course she had to have two birthdays; she was just too special to just have a standard celebration!
Gran was twice the woman of any I’ve known, she was my guiding light, the centre of my life, and I loved her with every fibre that makes me, she was simply Unforgettable- just like her double birthday.
In honour of my grans special day I have donated enough money to the British wireless for the blind fund who give radios for free and for life to people living with sight loss, Gran loved to listen to stories at night, and the wireless in the day, and we often had a sing song together when I visited which Mia became a part of to, she loved music and readily donated to RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) selling raffle tickets to us on their behalf when we visited her. So this seemed a perfect fitting tribute which I know she would have loved!
My heart will always be broken, and I’ve lost so many of the people that held it together, but I cherish these memories and I’m so thankful for those that gave them to me.
God bless my gran……
By Jodi Houghton