Dear Beverly,
I hope that all is well.
I received your card. Thank you.
It made me think about the cake you made that was never cut. I think about that every year around my birthday.
Every year I have a slice and savor the moment. In my mind I slowly take a bite and it makes me smile, chuckle and think of you. The eternal cake.
It was my tenth birthday? You had spent all day baking and decorating the most amazing cake. White frosting with ribbons of color swirled around the side and up to the top where several frosting clowns juggled, jumped and ran with balloons in their brilliant frosting colors.
A circus. A wonderful circus. It made me laugh. It was so goofy and fun. I had never seen anything like that. I was thrilled.
Topped with candles ablaze, I made a wish. I wanted to hold that moment forever. I took a deep breath and blew them out.
You had spent so much time on it and it was so beautiful that we couldn’t cut it. I wouldn’t let it be cut. You laughed and and I think I saw you blush. I couldn’t let it be cut — I wanted to enjoy it as long as I could.
I remember everyone laughing but agreeing that it was too beautiful to cut and that we would wait, and cut it later. We all had ice cream and laughed there at the table. Everyone was there – you, Mom, Michelle, Cindy, Pam, Michael. It was perfect. The cake remained uncut.
To this day, 30 some years later, my wish that day still comes true. I take another bite of that cake and remember that day. All of us there. The feelings well up inside. It brings back so many memories.
It had been a such difficult year for all of us. That had been my first birthday since and I was feeling so down. Then that cake. A festival sweeping me away letting me push aside everything and feel the joy again – giving me something of yourself so precious letting me know that everything was going to be alright and I have carried it with me ever since.
Yes, I received your card – thank you. But I wanted to let you know that I had another bite of cake. You mean so much to me and I wish I could find the words to tell you how much you are in my heart.
