An osprey family in the Chesapeake Bay 2010

Hey I was off yesterday! It was a Terrific Birthday Tuesday. Yet not  one with out fraught. My son Zach had a terrible asthma attack at 4:30 a.m. The first one in five years.

When he was three, he almost died from a reaction to an allergy shot. He has always gone 0-60 with asthma when he had it. Prevention has been a hallmark of my care of the boy growing up. Yesterday I was scared badly. He is better today, but he is not at school and  is asleep as I write.

So that is my excuse.

Now on with the show. It’s been four years  since my Dad passed away.  For me, Daddy’s Girl, that is just the worst. Even when my first husband died, I still had Daddy here with me. A birthday is full of memories and most of mine that are “oh so grand” from my childhood, revolve around him. He taught me how to live life with the good times and the bad times and to never give up hope. And well, to curse the world when it was bad, but know the better days of my life would always outweigh the darkest circumstance.

On my birthday, I wondered if Daddy could even comprehend that it was my my big day from his place in heaven.  He  was  the Superman of my childhood and much of my adult life, who could scare a Big Bad Wolf  with a wood cutter’s axe  or skip down the forest path like Little Red Riding Hood. He performed in good night bedtime stories as apt to be acted as read.

So I prayed for a sign from above that Daddy might wish me a happy day and let me know somehow he still followed my life here on Earth–that I was not alone. Because I often feel alone  even in the midst of a crowd or a hectic day.

All of my life I have loved animals domestic and wild. Since I moved back here 16 years ago, I have had a twice a year visit from an Osprey.  Daddy adored that bird– called him a “Fish Eagle” which is as descriptive of a Bald Eagle as an Osprey.  Depending on the  weather the Osprey fishes in our pond on one day in April and one day in late September during his migration pattern. We have a video of Daddy watching the Osprey fly around the pond while he sat in MaMaw’s car and made commentary back in 1996.

In 2007 a week or so after Daddy died (on April 9th) my girlfriends Carol Theimer and Debbie Turner watched it fly over the pond with me. I still get a lump in my throat when I think of that afternoon. An Osprey will always be something I associate with Daddy– maybe because they both loved to fish. In my dreams of him since, Daddy is often fishing or showing me a big catch. It makes me feel like he is having a great time in the next life.

You know where I am going with this. Almost a month early, the Osprey flew over our pond on the afternoon of my birthday around 5:30p.m. He hovered and circled,  dove  and caught a fish. He flew around and around with the fish in his talons, several times right at me like he was showing me his catch. My husband George filmed it.  I marveled at the answer to my prayer.

I received over 200 birthday well wishes on my Facebook, more by phone, snail mail and email. All of which I am thrilled and thankful about.  But the best “Happy Birthday” came from heaven. I was and always will be a Daddy’s Girl.  He let me know yesterday.

See ya next week!