Celebrating Barbara

Some people say “you can’t have too many birthdays.” And some (like Barbara, whose birthday is today) respond that once is enough – there’s no need to draw attention to the rest.

Personally, I think this is because Barbara comes from a large Minnesota-style family: one momma, one dad, seven children. Seven. Maybe, with a family that size, the only thing she got on her birthday was a year older.

I know it’s not true: about growing up as one of seven children and lacking birthday presents. She got plenty and I believe she’s still got some of them (after all, she’s kept the same husband for 30 years). And today she got a lot of best wishes from family and friends: the e-card business took a big jump today.

Last year, an Australian woman named Mary Armstrong celebrated her birthday (at a number that’s considerably higher than Barbara’s) by skydiving 12,000 feet to the earth. It was her third charity jump, raising $1,900 for an animal fund. Newsworthy and a good deed, too.

Barbara jumped into the kitchen to bake bread for dinner – not so newsworthy, perhaps, but I’m certainly grateful.

So I’ve made jokes – not at her expense, but to celebrate her birth and my luck. Look at the photo I took of Barbara: we were in Piraeus on a lovely winter day at the beginning of this year, and walking by this neat little boating canal. On the small bridge overlooking the water, her smile is so beautiful that it’s worth every pixel to capture it.

Happy birthday, Barbara Nytes-Baron: now that you’re 42, you know the meaning of life, the universe and everything.