Today is mine.  My birthday.

So many wonderful friends remembered and for that I am very grateful.

Birthdays are just different now.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to celebrate, but there’s a big hole in the circle that surrounds me on this day.  I have so many great memories of celebrating with the Big Guy. We had our “Birthday weeks” and they were special.  I think back on them now and I’m so glad we had those special times.

The 8 birthdays that have come around since he’s been gone are another marker of how much cancer changes lives.

These calendar days, as I call them, are a real test of our strength and perseverance to keep moving forward in life.

There was a point in this day where I took a couple of steps backward, allowing cancer to creep back into my world.  But I pushed back and will celebrate tonight with another year under my belt.

There are new memories to make and they’ll fit nicely next to the old ones.