41

Today would've been Aaron's 41st birthday.   If he were here I would be having a great time rubbing it into him about what an old man he was.  But when your husband passes away at the age of 39 you realise how young he really was and still would be today if he were here.  It was nice reading messages on his Facebook wall all morning, especially from past students.  One in particular was really lovely as he was saying how Aaron used to teach him in grade 7 and now he has graduated from Uni and has his first job teaching at a local high school. I know so much that Aaron would be proud of him and all his other students, who are working hard and doing things that they love.

A month or so ago the boys and I were talking about what we should do for Aaron's birthday.  Last year it was a really hard day, but we loved spending time with our good friends who made is so much easier for us, so we knew we wanted to do that again.  We planned to have a BBQ tea with them again, but decided that just the four of us would go out for lunch.

We were excited when Hogs Breath Cafe just recently opened up in Launceston, as we had been for the first time when we were in Hobart for the two year anniversary of Noah passing away.  A few weeks ago I got a lovely message on Facebook from a stranger,  who works at Hogs Breath who offered us VIP/Frequent Diner cards which would give us a discount whenever we went.  It was so lovely of her to offer it to us and I told her that we had planned on going there for Aaron's birthday, so she told me she would make the booking for us.

When we arrived today, I told the guy at the front that we had a booking and he told me that he had to speak to one of the managers about something.  The manager then came over to us and showed us our seats, and told us that today the meal was on them.  He said they wanted us to have a lovely time and that they would cover the cost for everything, and to order whatever we wanted!  I was so shocked! I hardly knew what to say, except to keep thanking him and he said 'it's Christmas! Enjoy!'.

Obviously the lovely lady who offered us the VIP cards had arranged it for us and we were so touched that people, and such a big business could be so kind to us, even now.  It means so much to us that people care so much.  It really made our day and it made the boys feel really special to know that people were being so kind to them on such a hard day.  

We had a little laugh that we were drinking diet coke, as Aaron loved his Pepsi and said it probably wasn't the best drink to be having on his birthday :)

 

Thank you to Hogs Breath for making a hard day extra special for us.  It meant a lot to me and my boys. 

For tea we got together with the Triffitts and the Woodwards for a BBQ at Punchbowl Reserve.   We were so full from lunch that we hardly ate anything, but it was just nice to get together with such good friends. 

The kids had fun feeding the ducks and playing around in the creek. 

 After tea we had a kick of the footy together.

Thanks Simone for the photos that I pinched from your blog post :) 

You would never guess that Simone and Simon's kids are the boys second cousins with the difference in their looks :)

After a play we headed to the cemetery to release some balloons and to have some Pepsi at Aaron's grave like we did last year.

Simone makes us laugh as the first time she had tasted Pepsi was at Aaron's birthday last year.  This year she decided to go with the strong stuff and have straight Pepsi instead of Pepsi Max.   We loved teasing her about it.  I'm sure Aaron would've been laughing and loving it too.

I had forgotten how awful Aaron's grave looked at the same time last year, until I looked at my blog post from then.  It's so much nicer now with the grass, and it's nice that it's still fairly green because of all the rain we've been having.

 I feel very blessed to have such great friends who make me laugh even on sad days.  It wasn't as hard this year as it was last year, and it was nice to see the boys coping with it a lot better too.

We told the kids to get ready to release their balloons and Jonty said 'and then Aaron will come back!?' which made me smile.

 A Pepsi for Aaron.

 I'm not sure what is in Jonty's cup, but I'm sure he didn't drink it!

Kobe is into doing headstands at the moment, and was keeping us entertained with it.  He was sure Daddy would want to see it.

 Visiting Noah's grave.

 It was such a beautiful night and it's always a nice time to go the cemetery just as the sun is starting to go down.

What I thought would be a really hard day, turned out to be a lovely day, thanks to the kindness of strangers and beautiful friends.   I'm sure Aaron would've been smiling down today.  I just wish like Jonty that he could come back, and that we could grow older together.