I remember back at the end of March, when the schools first closed and we were all told to stay at home, thinking it would only be for a few weeks.
We were all so hopeful that Rhys would still be able to have all his friends over for a birthday party at the end of April. We were pretty certain that things would be fairly normal again by my birthday in August.
It seemed absurd to imagine not being able to go out anywhere to celebrate Steve’s 40th in October.
And yet, here we are.
Luckily Steve didn’t want a big fuss over his birthday. He wasn’t bothered about having a big night out to celebrate. What was upsetting though was not being able to really spend time with his parents on the day.
The current local lockdown rules in Swansea meant that we couldn’t be with them indoors, so they popped round to garden and chatted by the back door for a bit. Which just wasn’t really the same. They did bring birthday cake though. And a really lovely photobook full of pictures of Steve from the last 40 years. A sort of photographic ‘this is your life’.
We’ve all really loved spending time looking through the book over the last few days.
There are some pictures from his childhood that I’ve seen before, and some I hadn’t. All of them make me smile. And it’s been fun seeing which of the children looked like him as babies.
The children were in school on the day of Steve’s birthday, so we saved his cake and presents for the afternoon when they were back home. They had both made him cards too and were so excited to hand everything over and sing happy birthday.
It might not have been the 40th we all thought it might be back in March, but at least it’s one we’ll all remember thanks to the local lockdown.
Now we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that things improve so that at some point next year we can do something a bit special to make up for all the celebrations that have been particularly low-key this year.
That’s lovely. you have to make the best of it don’t you? Different but still really good.
I think that’s it isn’t it, we can’t change things at the moment so have to make the best of it and still have fun! x
I hope Steve enjoyed his birthday anyway, the photo book looks great. The last birthday celebration we had was at the end of February for my son’s birthday, it seems crazy to think we’ve had five birthdays since then without celebration.
Such a strange time !! We’ve missed birthdays too , it’s not to bad with everyone who lives here obviously but it’s wider family that it’s such a shame not to be able to see on special days
Oh it’s so hard when family live far away isn’t it, when there’s no way you’ll be able to see them with things the way they are at the moment. x
I thought the same too that lockdown would only last a few weeks then we’d be back to normal. Things are so different now.
Happy birthday to Steve! The photo book sounds like a lovely gift. x
It’s hard to think back and remember just how fleeting this was supposed to be, isn’t it? I’m so glad you managed to have a nice day despite being stuck in another lockdown. The photo book sounds lovely! There’s nothing really beats the memories of photographs, especially as we grow older.
It’s just so surreal isn’t it, looking back at how we felt back then!
It’s good you got to see everyone in the garden though! Hopefully next year will make up for it.
The book sounds lovely. I’m sorry that he couldn’t have a normal 40th celebration but I hope he had a lovely day all the same x
I hope Steve enjoyed his birthday despite the lockdown, The photo book looks great. We’ve had mine last month and a few, it’s not ideal, but it is how it is x