ON REACHING THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY: MERRY BIRTHDAY 2021

The racy headline of a Midwest newspaper of December 25, 1946 read, “Stork Flies Over Wedding.” It refers to my having been born practically at the wedding where my father was his brother‘s best man. My sweet, uncomplaining mom was having labor pains at the reception and needed her cousins to tell her to get the heck to the hospital. 

 I only recently noticed the term “origin story” when Jim used it in his excellent forthcoming book to tell his own story. I guess this is mine. 

 Three score and fifteen years ago, Edith and Lou brought forth Diane Joy Gillman, the kind of kid who would, a few years later while standing at the Lincoln Memorial in front of the Gettysburg Address, decide to memorize it. 

 I don’t have trouble coming up with thoughts for the annual “Happy Birthday, Mom” letters I’ve been writing each year since my mother left us at age 93.5. “Happy 98th” is next. But although I’ve been taking notes to try to come up with a holiday birthday message of my own, those notes remain staring back at me from the Notes section of my phone in the company of 3,375 other half-baked ideas. 

Next, for inspiration I decided to search my exploding phone library for photos of Decembers past. Who has 3610 December photos on her phone? I do. But very few are marked as favorites. How come? Back in the Mesozoic Era at Liberty Street School, your birthday was a BIG deal because your mother got to bring cupcakes to the class. But not if everyone is on vacation.😕 So what did I do? I had a kid on November 27 which is usually in the middle of Thanksgiving vacation. I use that no-cupcakes story to justify why I turned out the way I did. 

 A snippet heard more than once over 75 years: 

—Date of birth? 

—December 25, 1946

 —Oh, a Christmas baby! 

 (Time to smile at the well-intentioned observer and resist saying, “It’s not as great as you might think.”) 

Never a fan of birthdays, I do believe in the movability of holidays. While visiting our kids in Slovenia, we celebrated mine early along with Noah’s own Thanksgiving birthday and the three Slovene versions of Santa (four if you include Santa James aka “Greppen” Charney). The “Merry Birthday” card Noah made for me was a highlight, as was the homemade book, “The Birthday Adventures of Super-Nonna,” produced by Eleonora and Izabella. 

So while there’s still hope that in the new year my phone notes will magically organize themselves into the kind of seasonal greeting I would like to offer, I am sending this, such as it is now, with gratitude for you and for having made it this far. Here’s to healthier, merrier times to all of us in the coming year.

—xxx, d💚 👵🌲🤶🏻💽✒️☎️📞🗝📠🕊🫒🏚🇺🇸 

(I just put “old” in the emoji search, and the above “pearls” came up

—a typewriter, vinyl record, push-button phone, a metal key, and a fountain pen. Remember those?😉)

 PS: My resident editor who has a very good eye felt there were things I should have included: what it feels like to have lived longer than my family history might have promised, an appreciation of what has gotten better as I have gotten older, some reflection on how I have used my years. I see what he means and will think more about it. What he suggests is way more ambitious and philosophical, and I wonder if I’m up to it. In the meantime, above is the current piece as a starter.  💝