A Birthday Party

Yesterday, in honor of one appachen’s ninetieth birthday, the residents of Chacko Homes gathered together in the dining room for tea and cake. Not everyone gets a birthday party like this one, but when you live to be ninety years old, I suppose you deserve one.

So, at tea time, we gathered to sing “Happy Birthday” and have a little treat. I’ve honestly never seen the dining room so full – not even at meal times! I guess vegetable cutlets and sweet plum cakes are just that enticing.

With all of us – the young and the old – sitting together around the tables, the birthday boy was introduced, given a small gift, and made a really big deal of. Everybody just sat there clapping, until everybody stood up to belt out “Happy Birthday” an intense energy and enthusiasm. I don’t know when I’ve seen the people of Chacko Homes any livelier.

We quieted down just a bit for the appachen to blow out his candles – a big ‘9’ and a bit ‘0’ stuck into the sweet plum cake. And this was my absolute favorite part: the ‘9’ had been stuck in backwards! Good thing we all knew how old he was turning.