Celebrating My Mom's 96the Birthday at a Long Term Care Home

My mom is a woman born in a humble abode at a rural village in China. Queen Elizabeth of England, born of blue blood, the sovereign head of state for United Kingdom and a host of other nations, do have something in common: They were both born in 1926 and are 96 years old this year! As said in Psalm 90:10 The measure of our life is seventy years; and if through strength it may be eighty years...

Our family wanted very much to mark and celebrate this milestone birthday with Mom. Though Canada has lifted some serious COVID restrcition, there were still many in place. Instead of having a big party in a restaurant, we compromised and asked Mom's long term nursing home for permission to hold a gathering in their party room. And we got the permission!

Phone calls were made and invitations were sent out to immediate families and Mom's children and fifteen grandchildren all over North American and beyond. Mom's health is failing. This could be her last birthday with us. A lot of her grandchildren realized this and they flew from all over to attend the birthday party:

E. from San Franscisco, Jen from Calgary, Pat from Florida, Ben from Halifax,

even Pa, our neighbour from Thunder Bay, flew to Toronto, especially for Mom's big event! It was a happy event involving many activities such as picking up out of town guests, hosting them and bringing them to the party.

Our siblings worked and planned together weeks before, and the day before to decorate the party room.

The birthday party day arrived ! We thank God that it was a sunny warm day in early April. What joy it was to see most of the family members, young and old all together under the same roof! Since our family has expanded and now we have a few little ones, we prepared a few activity stations to keep the children entertained so that they could have a good time just like their parents and uncles and aunts.

To make it easier for Mom, we planned a schedule so that she would be the last one to arrive to the party, just like the Queen. Dressed in a traditional purple Cheongsam, Mom was wheeled in by my older sister and her husband to the hall.

She was not feeling too well that day but she still managed to greet and have her pictures taken with everyone. Richard, her favourite personal service worker was in attendance and sang a couple of songs, providing entertainment to the guests.

It was a great day for Mom who could see her bign family all together celebrating her 96th birthday! We thank God that everything turned out well and things ran smoothly as planned! R.T. Stoufville, Ontario, Canada