I’m going to share a little secret with you … lean closer and I’ll whisper:
I celebrated a birthday last week!
Despite the fact I don’t like having a January birthday (it’s too soon after Christmas and New Year celebrations), it’s usually a happy occasion – and this year was no different.
But it got me thinking about the handful of times throughout my life when it wasn’t all that great. Which one qualifies for the worst birthday ever?
And the nominees are:
A – The No Fuss or Fanfare Birthday
My 12th birthday was spent at the beach which sounds great – in theory.
We were on a camping holiday, and I’ll admit it would have been difficult to organise any fuss or fanfare. But surely there could have been … something?!
Imagine it: no cards, no presents, no cake, absolutely nothing special to commemorate my special day (although I did end up getting some money when we returned home a week or so later, so I could buy my own gift).
I remember trying to prove how mature I was by putting a good face on and pretending to accept it. But inside was a different story.
B – The Birthday Breakup
When I turned 19, my boyfriend (of over 2 years) took me out for dinner, gave me my gift and then promptly broke up with me on the way home. I cried floods of tears.
It wasn’t a complete shock – I’d sensed for a couple of weeks that something was not right – but I was still devastated. Oh well. At least he waited until AFTER dinner and presents before he dumped me!
C – The Year of the Tummy Bug
On my 26th birthday I came down with a stomach bug and spent the night kneeling at the porcelain altar in our bathroom!
Thankfully we’d celebrated with a trip to Movieworld, the weekend before. Maybe that’s where I picked up the virus …
D – An early morning wakeup call
The day I turned 36, the phone rang at about 7.10am. Nothing unusual in that – I knew it would be somebody ringing to wish me a happy birthday. Sure enough, one of my sisters was on the other end of the line.
However she was NOT calling for my birthday, rather, it was to break the news that our father had suffered a heart attack in the night and was now in Intensive Care. We came close to losing Dad, so it was not a very happy birthday at all as we were all very worried for him (thankfully, he’s still with us and doing just fine all these years later!).
E – Farewell to a beloved pet
My 47th birthday was great – until we were ready to go to bed and noticed that our pet cockatiel Buddy was sitting on the floor of his cage. He’d been diagnosed with a tumour about a month earlier and we knew that it was only matter of time, however it just happened to be the night of my birthday that he crossed the rainbow bridge :`( .
So there you have it, my list of birthdays that have been incredibly memorable for all the WRONG reasons!
And The Worst Birthday Ever Award goes to …
While there are some real doozies right there, if I had to pick out just one for the title of “worst birthday ever”, it would have to be A – simply because I was just a kid and it seems pretty harsh to me, and even more so after having raised children myself!
The year we nearly lost my dad was right up there, but fortunately had a happy ending.
Which of these stories stands out as the “worst birthday ever” to you? And what was your worst birthday ever?!