I'm your basic non-celebratory type, when it comes to my own b-day; it's just another trip around the sun to me. If I can get together with my daughter and son-in-law, and/or friends for a nice meal, that's more than enough insofar as marking the date. If not, that's OK too.

My birthday was Monday. I also lost mother.

Not exactly scary, but sad. my oldest sister died on my birthday two years ago.

On my 22nd bday I went to a funeral for an old cousin I didn’t really know. It was surreal. Then it started snowing as we all stood around in our long black coats. Then Taps was played. I started to lose it. I had to muffle my laughter since this would be awful for the family. So I went to the car and lost it in laughing and saying over and over I can’t believe this is happening.

In 1977, on my 19th birthday I was in Army Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, SC. That was the day we had gas chamber training... Yes I had to go in the gas chamber, take off my mask, give my Drill Sergeant my name, rank, and serial number, and then I could run out of the chamber and barf my lunch.

My grandfather got his first great grandchild on his birthday. And my middle daughter was born on my mom's birthday which was special to me. My mom died when I was 14. Two of my sisters had given their daughters my mom's middle name. (Mom was Minnie Mae, no one in this generation was going to name a girl Minnie.) I thought I one upped my sisters by my daughter arriving on her birthday, not like I had much influence over it.