Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Be Right #6: The Birthday

This week is my birthday and today, I was lucky enough to go out for a pedicure, manicure and lunch with my friend, Maria. We were seated next to an older woman who was reading a book and quietly eating her lunch. We overheard the waitress ask the woman if she would like dessert. The woman replied that she would have a piece of cake since today was her birthday. The waitress brought her over a slice of cake with a candle on top. We wished her a happy birthday and she made a wish and blew out her candle.

It made me so completely sad to see this woman in a restaurant blowing out a candle on her slice of birthday cake alone. I felt helpless, like I needed to try and do something for this woman I didn't even know. I went to our waitress and asked if she could please put the woman's lunch on my bill. When she finished her meal, the waitress told her someone in the restaurant had paid her bill. The woman asked if it was us, we told her it was and we hoped she had a wonderful birthday. She thanked us and said she had received birthday money from her 93 year old father and had planned to use it to pay for her lunch. We told her maybe she could go out and treat herself to something else special.

I haven't stopped thinking about this woman all day, thinking how lucky I was to have so many wonderful friends & family in my life. Thinking I would probably never be reading a book and eating cake alone in a restaurant on my birthday and how grateful I was for that. I was happy to be able to do something for her, even though it was small. I hoped that somehow it made her feel a little bit special and made her day a little bit brighter. She certainly made me reflect on my own birthday this week and will make me a little more grateful every year.

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