50!! Time to be extraordinary!!

You know that as parents we try our best for our children and hope that we have a positive influence on their lives. And... secretly we hope that we are the more significant parent to our child.

Oh c’mon!! Don’t act all shocked!! There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition even among spouses!! This, however, makes me think of a an occasion that I happened to witness which left me with food for thought.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to be in the US for the Christmas holidays and amongst all the festivities I happened to be party to a 50th Birthday celebration.
The birthday “girl” a Jamaican–born prominent local attorney, beautiful and accomplished, elegant and eloquent, gathered her friends and family around to toast her 50 years!!

Besides the fact that all those Jamaican brothers and sisters have some serious moves on them MAN and really know how to party, they went ga-ga over my shoes!!! They absolutely them!!! LOL!! Now that’s enough to make any occasion memorable but no, besides that… what made it memorable was her speech.

Let me give you a brief history here…

Her mother now in her seventies left Jamaica with 3 small children after her divorce. The reason for the divorce is a complete other blog, so lets not get into it now. She settled in the US and struggled to bring up her children on her own without much help from their father. She managed to educate them and brought them up to be secure and confident adults. When her daughter’s marriage failed she helped to take care of her grandson so that her daughter could pursue her career. Remarkable woman I would say…

And now here is the moment, which will be forever imprinted in my mind.
When the time came for her at the height of her celebration to make her acknowledgements, whom does she thank for making her into the woman that she is today? Her father!! Hello! The dude wasn’t even there MAN!! (You do realize that ”MAN” is to be pronounced in a Jamaican accent!)
He could not attend his only daughter’s 50th birthday party due to prior arrangements!!!

It made me think that parenting is one of the most selfless acts that we will ever do and should never expect acknowledgement for it.

Today, I remember my father fondly. I have to say, as I often tell friends who are quick to point out that I can be such a princess, that the only time I was truly a princess is when I was my father’s daughter. He is gone now nearly 10 years and I still miss him terribly. Without him I wouldn’t be who I am today and without him I wouldn’t have what I have…

I will always love him.
My your memory live beyond the ages!