Happy Birthday??

Let me see if I can do this awkward moment justice in the retelling. Yesterday was the birthday of Sor Margarita Roman. No one remembered except for Jodi, one of the new volunteers, who pointed it out at breakfast (there is a paper with everyone´s birthdays posted on the wall). ¨OH!¨ came the response once Sor Roman had left the room.

For lunch, the Sister´s put out the placemat, set flowers and a balloon in Sor Roman´s spot at the table. Sor Roman came in, got her food (as the Sister´s got out the guitar to sing happy birthday), came back into the dining room and purposely set her food down at another seat, claimed her silverware and glass from the seat with the placemat and flowers, and brought them to the other seat.

Filled with a deep sense of purpose that will not be thwarted by lack of eye contact or general acknowlegement, the Sisters sang their happy birthday songs to, well, each other. Sor Roman prepared her food with seasonings to her taste and began to eat as though she were the only one in the room. Although, even people who eat alone will look around them with a bit of a far away look in their eye as they ponder one thought or another. Sor only concentrated on her food, and when the music ended she said a somewhat appreciative thank you to her soup, and that was the end of that.