Barbara J. Hamby

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Great Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday today—in fact it was a whole birthday weekend. I have been behind on sleep the last few weeks. Before and after the cataract surgery, I’ve had insomnia, a new experience for me. Most of my life I had to hurry to get to bed before I fell asleep.

Yesterday afternoon Floyd went off to a meeting and I stayed home to rest. I slept through one movie and woke up to watch another, stretched out in a recliner. Last night I slept another nine hours. Both days I had good swims and hot tub dips.

I received phone calls from both of my kids, emails and cards from my sisters and greetings from other relatives. A postcard from my insurance agent and emails from two cruise lines and two online matchmaking services all delivered birthday greetings. I didn’t even remember the matchmaking services had my profile left over from the days when I was researching my book, Find Romance in Later Life. So I canceled those memberships.

I told my son and daughter that next year will be the big birthday—80—so we can really celebrate then. Twenty years ago when I had cancer surgery, I wasn’t sure I’d still be here at 80, or even 70 for that matter.

We finished off the day with dinner at Red Lobster. We both love shrimp, so had different shrimp dishes and left there stuffed.