7.27.27

This is the day, 83 years ago, when M. Eileen Connolly Drennen was born.

Had my mother lived past Feb. 9, 2002, we would have had one hellacious party. Every year after 75, certainly.

As it was, the one big blowout we managed to have was for her 70th, and we made it as grand as the nursing home where she spent her last years would allow. Took over the dining room, brought in balloons and food and cake and music, and invited every relative who could make it -- including a brother she hadn't seen in 20 years.

Thank heavens for that.

I was thinking of her even more than usual today because I saw her everywhere this weekend, at another birthday celebration in Philadelphia, where my brother and his children threw a surprise party for my sister-in-law on the occasion of her 50th.

She was clearly present, in looks and spirit, in so many of the descendants who traveled far and wide just to yell SURPRISE and see Debbie's face erupt in shocked joy.

My mother's smile, dimples, great wheezy laugh; her love of song and singing, all live on in the lives she made and the lives she made possible.

So tonight I raise a glass in her honor, for all she was, and all she helped us to be; for all the stories she told us and all the ones she never found a way to tell.