Yes, Esteemed Readers: Elder Daughter celebrates her twenty-seventh birthday today.
It’s a milestone of sorts. For the first time, she is more than half my age, having been born when I was a mere stripling of 26. That was the singular event that, in my mind, marked my true inauguration as an adult...far more than other milestones like moving to my own apartment, getting my first job, getting married, signing my first mortgage note. For once you become a Daddy, you are responsible for feeding, clothing, protecting, and raising another human being. An awesome and sobering responsibility, but one that offers the greatest rewards.
Ahh, Elder Daughter. It’s hard to believe she’s a child of the 1970’s, but it’s true - we sneaked her in before that tumultuous decade had rolled to a close. And perhaps it’s appropriate, because her tastes in literature and music have some Throwback Elements, having been shaped early on by the perverse influence of her Daddy.
It was 27 years ago today that I discovered what it was like to fall in love at first sight.
Momma SWMBO and our baby girl, May 11, 1979.
Me and my shadow - 1981.
Eye-rolling in Cambridge, 2005.
Our Not-So-Little-Girl has done a lot in her time on the planet. She has lived in six different houses under our family roof. She has lived in five different states as well as having resided overseas - twice! - something we have never done. She has been to faraway places whether neither I nor She Who Must Be Obeyed have set foot: Sweden, Italy, Cyprus, Ireland. She has been married over ten times - OK, it was in a high school production of Fiddler On The Roof, but it still got the ol’ waterworks going.
Even if she were not my daughter, I would want to have her as a friend. I cannot imagine a higher compliment for any child, and it’s one that both of our girls have earned.
Elder Daughter, 2006.
She is our Elder Daughter, and we love her. Happy birthday, sweetie!
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