Birthday Cakes, and Being Loved

In the old days only kings and queens celebrated their birthdays.

Not so now.

Birthdays have become very special days for ordinary folk as well as for people in high positions.

Birthday celebrations are often in the news. Several weeks ago when President Jimmy Carter turned 53, the TV, radio, and newspapers made much of the event. One news agency reported in detail how the president, Mrs. Carter, and Amy (their daughter) spent the weekend at the presidential retreat in the Cacapon mountains in western Maryland. And, said the news release, Mr. Carter’s birthday cake was “pistachio nut, his favorite.”

Pictures showed the President waving to well wishers, smiling with obvious pleasure. For him, it was a special time.

The same day President Carter’s birthday picture appeared in the papers, the Associated Press sent out a wirephoto from Marietta, Ga. showing former Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox propped up In bed cutting a birthday cake, a present from the staff of the hospital where he was recovering from a heart attack. The ailing Mr. Maddox, now 62, looked highly pleased.

Along about the same time these two Georgians were marking their birthdays there was a special observance in Italy for Pope Paul VI as he reached the age of eighty years. Television news programs showed pictures of the throng that gathered in Rome to honor this venerable man of the cloth. Roman Catholics throughout the world took note of the event.

The Pope was said to be very happy on that day, his special day.

In Enterprise last month an unusual birthday celebration and party was held for an Alabama man, Willie Jones, who had just become 94 years old. Mr. Jones’ picture, too, was published.

Printed under the picture was this caption and account of the celebration:

“Life-long resident of Alabama and long-time resident of Enterprise, Willie Jones can be found every day sitting on a bench in front of the IGA food store in West Gate shopping center. Willie was the surprised guest of honor at a birthday party ... held by employees of the store who called him into the store and presented him with a birthday cake and many gifts.

“The party, in observance of his 94th birthday, was the first, he said, he’d had since he left home as a young man. Willie, who lives in a nearby house which has no electricity, received a battery-operated radio to ease his mind when the weather gets bad as well as several gifts of cash and clothing plus free lunches for the week.

“The store employees who had a hand in the planning of the party were as thrilled at the elderly man’s pleasure as he was at being remembered.”

A recent birthday celebration which did not make the newspaper headlines, or the TV programs, was that of my long-time friend Virginia White, an Army wife, who lives in Atlanta, Ga.

But Virginia, in writing to me about her birthday, revealed exactly what it is that makes a birthday so special.

She told first about Bill, her husband, and his gift and the other lovely presents sent to her, the sixteen phone calls she received, the dinner her daughter-in-law cooked, the cake her son brought to her, a luncheon with her cousin and other kin, what her grandchildren said. And then Virginia added:

“It was a wonderful day, and so wonderful to know that I’m loved.”

That’s what makes a birthday great! It’s not the cakes, or pictures, or being in the news. It is knowing that you are loved.

Published November 1977. Press your browser’s “Back” button to return.