60

It’s Mama’s 60th birthday today. Last year, I was hinting to sis that we should have a big celebration for her. Mama overheard us and said that she didn’t want any of that. “If you really want to give me something big, send me to a vacation in the Philippines,” she said. We couldn’t afford that, especially now with our situations.

I was going to plan for a small surprise party like the one she had on her 50th birthday, which was planned by her friend, but I wasn’t able to due to the sad events that happened recently. So earlier this week, with sis’ help, we planned for a small family gathering. We wanted to cheer her up. Aside from her family, I think Mama is the one who misses Ate Alice the most. They were really close and they usually have coffee together every Sunday morning.

Mama was supposed to come at sis’ place at 3:00 p.m. to watch a movie before we leave for church at 5:00 p.m. She didn’t know that sis and I prepared some food and I decorated my house. She must have known that we bought a cake because sis asked her yesterday what cake flavour she wanted. She told sis not to bother but we bought a cake anyway.

We all anticipated her arrival at 3:00 p.m. I phoned her when she hadn’t come at 3:30.

“Ma, what time are you coming?”
“We’re not going to church until later, aren’t we?”
“Umm, we bought you a cake and we’re waiting for you to cut it.”
“We can do that after mass.”
“Oh, but the kids are eager to have some now.”

She came around 4:00 p.m.

“Surprise!” As if she really was surprised. We had pizzas, spaghetti, macaroni salad and vanilla flavoured cake with butter icing. Then we watched a movie, “October Sky,” which I already watched on TV last year.