Our son was a very unexpected, huge surprise, wonderful bonus baby. From the moment I was given a due date of October 30, I truly hoped he would arrive on my Granny’s mid October birthday.  Without any planning, that is just what happened! At my 37 week appointment my blood pressure had suddenly escalated to my preeclampsia levels from previous pregnancies, so I was sent straight to the hospital to get things under control.  A c-section was scheduled for the next morning, Granny’s birthday. From that moment forward, our son had a special bond with Granny and they celebrated their birthday together every October for ten years. The fact that their birthday was around our yearly school fall break made it easier to visit for the yearly celebration.

Granny never drove so she relied on family and friends to take her to doctors appointments, shopping and church.  By the time she reached the age of 93, many of her friends were no longer able to do so. She began to refuse to allow family to spend their Sunday’s driving her to her small country church.  Any time we visited and offered, she wanted to spend as much family time together as we all could.  Our son really wanted Granny to have a chance to return to church. In the spring of his 11th year, Easter fell at the end of our spring break week.  We planned to be visiting already, so he called Granny and told her we were taking her to church and that was final.  

That Easter Sunday my family of six, my youngest sister and her three girls, our mom and our Granny made it to church.  I think our family group was at least 20% of the total attendance that week.  Our son sat right beside Granny holding her hand through nearly the entire service.  I sat behind them and loved seeing that connection – you see he was the only great grandson that lived in Georgia, so the added bonus of sharing a birthday gave them more of a special bond. It was a wonderful day of family time.  After church we had a nice dinner at my moms’ home  and spent a few more hours together before my family had to return to our home.  

Three days later, Granny went to meet Jesus in her eternal home.  Within hours of getting the call that she had passed away – in her own home within 15 feet of the spot where she had been born – our son looked at the calendar and realized the date was “their half-birthday”!  It seemed like a bittersweet date.  We were all so thankful that we got her to her little country church for one last service.  To my knowledge, it is the only church she ever attended. I have always loved the fact that her parents and grandaddy’s parents are buried in family plots right beside each other in that same small cemetery. 

Granny lived a long and happy life and we celebrated that just one week after that Easter service.  We all grieved in our own way, and life moved on.  But as October arrived my son began to feel sad that he wouldn’t be able to celebrate his birthday with his birthday buddy.  Two days before his birthday he was outside shooting hoops after school.  He came running in and told me that Grandaddy’s rose bush had a bloom on it. (I had transplanted this bush from the family farm about 20 years prior to this date.) I reminded my son quickly that the rose bush only bloomed in April, and sent him back outside.  He quickly returned insisting the rose bush had a bloom.  This time I reminded him that we were in a drought and the bush was dormant at the time.  I told him there was still a bloom on the Camelia bush and sent him out again.  A third time he came in insisting the rose bush had a bloom.  So I finally went outside with him – to prove him wrong of course – and was left in total amazement at the sight of a single red rosebud among several green leaves on one stem of the rose bush!  

Once I was over my shock that it truly had a bloom, I realized it was a gift for my son.  I reminded him that God cared so much for him and saw how sad he was about celebrating his first birthday without Granny at the table.  God had sent him a rose on a bush that came from that family farm. From a bush that Granny’s dear husband had grown and tended to for years.  What a blessing.  God cares about all our needs!  We waited two days to take this photo of my son beside that special gift (fully bloomed by then) on their birthday. As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  

It has been almost fifteen years since that birthday, and this bush has never again bloomed in October.  It continues to bloom for two to three weeks in April, just as it always has since Grandaddy first planted the bush in south Georgia.  This visual reminder of God’s loving, surprise gift is one we each hold dear.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,

who does not change like shifting shadows.”

James 1:17