Birthday Wishes

Sending out Birthday wishes to my cousin RDV (which, if you know my cousins could be any one of 4 people, but he knows who he is, and they all know who's birthday is today.)

Growing up, my cousins on my my mom's side always thought we'd much rather be spending time with our cousins from our dad's side. After all B & J had their own pool, they had a bigger house, more toys, better toys, they came from the 'right side of the track'. I guess our V cousins always felt as if they could never compete or measure up to the M cousins.

We had to wait until we were all adults to discover that little nugget of truth. The rest of the story is, yes, B & J had the pool, the bigger house, more toys, but we always has more laughs, played harder, had more fun, and created greater memories that have lasted far longer with the V cousins.

As adults we still sit around sharing stories of things we remember from our childhood. We laugh at and with each other until our sides ache and tears are rolling. We may tell the same story year after year, and we all know them so well, we can finish any story that gets started. We don't have that kind of camaraderie with the M cousins.

So,Happy Happy Birthday to RDV, the cousin who put the fish he caught in the swimming pool until he could clean it, who cleaned his gold fish bowl with Comet, who got chased through the neighborhood by a billy goat, the cousin who has a heart of pure gold and is bigger than the whole of him, who would give you the shirt off his back, who is growing old before his time, the cousin who loves with his whole being and has never learned to hide his emotions. Where ever you are today, whatever you are doing, know that you're in my heart, and I love you, even if I don't always get the chance to tell you.