Gabriel is my Mom’s 9th grandchild, and he had the “pleasure” of celebrating his 17th birthday while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, my sister and Gabriel’s sisters used their creativity and excellent baking skills to make his day fun and festive; but the county order did not allow us to wish Gabriel a “Happy Birthday” in person. So, we decided to send him a video of us singing “Happy Birthday” to him.

I happened to have had two birthday decorations in the trunk of my car: a party hat and a Happy Birthday balloon. I gave my Mom first choice on which decoration she wanted to use for our video. Without hesitation, she immediately chose the balloon. I would later learn that giving her this choice was a mistake!

My brother, Michael, was here visiting our Mom, and he agreed to play the traditional birthday song while we sang. Michael started the first two notes when my Mom stopped us, turned to me and asked, “can we have a ‘run-through’ first?” Of course! Fortunately, Tanya Marie captured our “run-through” on video.

After we practiced the song once, per my Mom’s request, we made our official video. We…..have……no clue what my Mom was doing during Michael’s vibrant piano introduction, other than being goofy.

I don’t ever recall my Mom being so funny. She was not a clown. She was and has always been more of a classy, gentle, soft-spoken lady. She smiled a lot, laughed a lot, and was pretty much a happy, positive, warm, and loving person. But funny or silly? No.

For some reason she is (funny) now. Her humor is more sarcasm, and sarcastic was never my Mom’s personality. So……here she is, singing “Happy Birthday” with my brother and me to her grandson/our nephew with a wit and silliness for which I only have this illness to thank. ❤