It's Friday as I write this, but most will read my blog post tomorrow, which is October 27th, my mother's birthday. I think each year--or many years since I began this blog in 2011--I've written about my mom's birthday and the pre-Halloween tradition I've kept up for decades.
Each year, on her birthday, I carve a pumpkin.
I used to give it to her and it would be one of the pumpkins we put on the stairs at our house. Now, I place it on my parent's grave. I carved the pumpkin today, tomorrow I'll take it over and place it on the grave. I would have placed it there before I went to work this afternoon, but last year, someone smashed it when I checked a few days after the 27th.
A trick I've been using the past couple of years is to use one of those rechargeable yard lights to light the pumpkin at night. I just cut a hole the size of the light and voilá, I have illumination without resorting to a candle or a battery-powered light.
I sure miss my mom. She'd be turning eighty-seven. She'd love watching her grandkids get bigger, seeing and being with the great-grandkids, and making our lives become a part of her own. But, as with all things, since we have a beginning, we must then have an ending and her time came over eleven years ago.
Tomorrow I'll drive over the the cemetery, place the pumpkin on the headstone, and hope no one smashes it, at least until tomorrow's over. This year, I chose a "witch hitting a tree" pattern. I'm sure she would have loved it. Happy birthday, well, tomorrow.
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