Happy Birthday, Luke

Dear Luke,

Twenty years ago today you were born.  You came into this world with a fight.  You and your predominate Stermer forehead refused to show yourself for two days after my water broke at Montgomery Wards.  You were finally forced into this world while I was asleep from the remnants of anesthesia.  Your dad went with you and the nurse over to the warming table while she did what they do to new borns.  The nurse told him you were beautiful.  He asked her weren't all babies beautiful and she promptly and honestly told him no.

 I woke up, looked over and saw you lying in the bassinet. Of course I was your mother and thought you were the most beautiful baby in the world.  As you grew up you were energetic, funny, charming, creative and clever.  You were surrounded by friends and family who loved you very much.

And then, in the blink of an eye,  you were graduating from high school. 

Now, twenty years after your reluctant appearance,  you are a man, working on the railroad and living in Kansas City.  For the first time you are spending your birthday away from friends and family while your mother is wondering where the time went.

 You are a remarkable young man and I wish you the happiest of birthdays.  I know this one is hard and you wish you were home.  I wish you were home too.  Many years from now you are going to look back on this particular anniversary of your birth and remember it.   Because it is the birthday that you were on the brink of your wonderful career and exciting life.  I am very proud of you, as are the friends and family that miss you as much as you miss them.   I promise that even though this birthday may be a little rough, the best is yet to come.  I love you with all my heart,  Luke Simmons.  Happy 20th Birthday!

Love,
   Mom