Fifty comes early!

This is a story that brought a tear to my eye as it unrolled. It's about my family and about how generous they are.

It seems that when my eldest sister was visiting me in May she had some unfavourable impressions of my fridge! (Just joking — she observed its condition, which was something less than ideal.) Considering that I bought it used over twenty years ago, it is probably a miracle meriting Vatican investigation that it was still keeping anything cold.

Here's what it looked like, both closed:

…and open:

So while she was still in British Columbia, she and my other two sisters, my brother, their spouses and my parents conspired together to replace it with a lovely new one, which arrived today:

When my little sister called me to tell me to expect it, real tears welled up in my eyes. It was not, as one of my favourite greeting cards once announced, that I was overwhelmed by the beauty and magic of life handing me perfect ice cubes once again (although this is now true!), but being moved by the love and generosity of my family.

Of course, being me, I was immediately seized by the thought that it was too much, and that it had something to say about my ongoing inability to provide for myself. (Nasty pessimist!) I have been reassured, however, that this is an early (may I add VERY EARLY?!) fiftieth birthday present, since I have long been reluctant to celebrate the day when it comes around. So there we have it: they are all conspiring to try to age me early because of their extreme jealousy over my not having any grey hair (just some increases in the blond ones showing up in my beard).

I knew there was an ulterior motive! ;-)

But seriously, I love my family a lot, and they never have to buy me anything for that. Just throw me a game of cards or Scrabble every now and then (but be careful not to make that obvious!).