I had been OK with Vivi being away at camp…until about 11 p.m. on her birthday. All afternoon, I had been hitting Refresh on the camp photo page. I know they celebrated her day by singing at meals, and her unit had cake, and she got that big pink care package that G and I left for her at the trading post, but I needed to SEE some of it.
The photos went up and within minutes I started crying. Out of 225 pictures, I only found four with her visible. In two, she was daydreaming in the back of a canoe, her paddle vertical in the water. In one, she was walking with her unit but she seemed alone, sucking on her finger. In the best photo, she stood with her counselor:
Simply seeing her face wasn’t enough for me. Is she happy enough? Does she look like a girl on her birthday? Is she OK? My mind whirled down the path of worry but there was just no knowing.
I hadn’t realized how much I was hoping to see a photo of her giggling with her tentmates or at the center of some shenanigans. I couldn’t stop the tears that sprang from my eyes. G gave me hug and reminded me that she is probably having a blast.
Still, my mom heart kept asking, “Is she happy enough?”
As I went to bed, I could hear anxiety and insomnia creeping up behind me on shuffling feet. It was 11:49 p.m. so I told myself that once the clock turned to 12:00 a.m., it wouldn’t be her birthday anymore and I could put down the whip. While I waited for the minutes to tick by, I remembered a conversation that Daddy and I had about birthdays and birthday cake.
It was sometime last year, probably at Cowtail because my Aunt Dixie was there. We started talking about birthday cake and I told Aunt Dixie, “I still remember the cake you made for Shannon for her second or third birthday–it had pink frosting and daisies with petals made from marshmallows and you had dyed the center of each petal with pink sugar.”
Aunt Dixie laughed and said, “Gosh, I remember that cake! It was a recipe from Good Housekeeping and those durn flowers took me forever.”
“Well, it was worth it because I still think of that cake and how pretty it was. Now that I’ve got kids I understand how much effort it takes….”
And Daddy finished my sentence–“when somebody loves you that much.”
Exactly. That’s what that pink cake covered in sugar sparkling flowers was–a visible way of seeing how much Aunt Dixie loved her daughter. Somebody loves you that much, enough to stay up all night snipping sticky marshmallows and dipping them in pink sugar just to see the delight in your eyes on your birthday.
Daddy used to make me cakes for my birthday. Coconut cakes because they were our favorite. He went to the trouble because he loved me that much.
That memory helped me understand why I was struggling with being apart from Vivi on her birthday–making a fuss over her has always been my way of showing her “somebody loves you that much.”
I looked at the photo of Vivi and her counselor again and my heart was soothed. See that book in her hand? That’s the sixth book in a series that she’s been reading. It was in her birthday care package that was delivered at camp. Look how much she’s read in one afternoon! I couldn’t make her a cake that day, but I gave her something she finds just as sweet.
She’s been gobbling up a story. A book that was ordered for her, kept a surprise, packed in a special pink box with glow bracelets and puppy stickers and a disposable camera and gel pens and a camp bandana…all because somebody loves her that much.
I hope she stayed up until she was finished with the book. She has her green camp lantern, and she has extra batteries. She even has books seven and eight waiting for her at home. All because somebody loves her that much.
My youngest son is a little older than Vivi (14) but I just spent the last nine days obsessively checking the blogs, FB posts and Tweets from the leaders at the camp in Colorado he was attending, sometimes only spotting his bright orange backpack. It was torture. Then I got a message from a friend whose son is attending the same camp and is a rising senior. She, too, had been cyberstalking the camp page for “proof of life” and was convinced based on the pictures she had spotted that he was sad or upset or sick. I reassured her it was probably just bad photo selection (he was with an amazing group of people)…and it turned out that’s all it was. He had a wonderful time and emerged as one of the leaders of the group. So the bad news is that we may never grow out of this kind of obsessive behavior, but the good news is we have raised strong, independent, joyful kids who are very secure in the knowledge that they are loved even when we can’t be there to say so.
I showed “a picture of Vivi” to a friend of mine…the only thing visible was the top of her head and the curve of her ear! I hope that Vivi will come home filled with stories about her adventure. She sure is independent!
I felt the love and it’s not my birthday . I hope that your special one had a fabulous day without her sweet Mothet by her side. Somebody is growing up and it’s not Vivi
Damn, that’s the TRUTH! I’m learning so much while she’s away.
One of my favorite quotes from a book, whose title I’ve long since forgotten, fits with your theme today. The quote is, “Cornrows mean you’re loved!”
Because that is WORK! I remember a book about quilts that had a quote from Alice Walker: “If somebody makes you a quilt, they LOVE YOU.”
Beautiful post. She is definitely happy, she has a book and a great mom. You can relax now.
Cook me some pasta and I’ll consider it!
Pingback: Living or Nonliving - Baddest Mother Ever