{"id":512,"date":"2014-05-05T08:21:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T12:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=512"},"modified":"2014-05-15T17:36:28","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T21:36:28","slug":"birthday-wishes-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/birthday-wishes-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Wishes to Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RayAt the last minute my daughter\u2019s friend called to postpone our sushi dinner, the celebration of the third birthday since<\/a> my daughter died. It didn\u2019t bother me. It was actually typical of Marika\u2019s birthdays. She used to make her birthday last a whole week.<\/p>\n

But I was stuck. It was six on a Saturday night, not a good time to round up a friend or sit by myself in a crowded restaurant. So I decided to get a takeout and bring it home to eat by Marika\u2019s life-size portrait, with candlelight, and her dog. Stepping into the car, I decided I would \u201clisten\u201d to Marika, do what she would do. For so many of her birthdays I had allowed her to lead me through shopping sprees at the Syracuse Mall, pond parties, \u2026 huge sushi platters.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t have sushi three nights in a row,\u201d I\u2019d laughed, knowing she could.
\n\u201cBut it\u2019s my birthday,\u201d she\u2019d say with a silly pout. I couldn\u2019t refuse a birthday wish. I was with her for every one of her birthdays and on those days she ruled.<\/p>\n

Alone in the car on the evening she would have turned twenty-four, I headed for the sushi place where I would take her friend for dinner the following night. But suddenly I heard my daughter\u2019s voice.
\n\u201cMom. Turn here. ZaZa\u2019s!\u201d There was barely time to check for traffic in the lane I crossed to turn into the parking lot.
\n\u201cDid I ever take you here?\u201d I wondered aloud as I parked.
\n\u201cMom, I love ZaZa\u2019s<\/a>.\u201d So there we were. Before reading the menu, I knew we would walk out with the seafood stew and chocolate cake.<\/p>\n

I knew that later my son would pour two glasses of scotch to toast Marika. I knew the next morning I\u2019d hike with her dog in the trillium and trout lilies that herald in this season. I would blow bubbles into the wind and toss breadcrumbs to ducks on the pond. I\u2019d light a candle and take her friend to the sushi restaurant<\/a> the next day. And I knew Mothers\u2019 Day would follow soon and I\u2019d buy myself a gift \u201cfrom her.\u201d<\/p>\n

What I didn\u2019t know was how hard it would be still, to stand with her dog in the late night rain under a starless sky and sing happy birthday to her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the last minute my daughter’s friend called to postpone our sushi dinner, the celebration of the third birthday since my daughter died. It didn’t bother me. It was actually typical of Marika’s birthdays. She used to make her birthday last a whole week. But I was stuck. It was six on a Saturday night, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[127,124,129,123,125,126,131,128,130],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1","tag-birthday-after-a-child-dies","tag-birthday-for-deceased","tag-birthday-sushi","tag-birthday-wishes-to-heaven","tag-celebrating-a-loved-one","tag-in-memory-of-a-daughter","tag-mitsuba-restaurant","tag-to-honor-my-childs-life","tag-zazas-restaurant"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t