Fourteen neighbors? A couple of dozen cupcakes? A Friday afternoon?
Sure, I tell my mom, I’ll help her throw a small celebration of her 92nd birthday, a custom in her neighborhood, where the residents let each other off the hook by proactively reminding each other of the occasion and hosting their own to-dos.
It’s yet another example of something that’s gauche at a young age morphing into something that’s graceful, for all concerned, at a later age.
We draw up a guest list.
In her day, my mom would’ve inked the invitations in her distinctive hand using a fountain pen. She also would have served the cupcakes on her best gold-banded china.
Well, here she is, in her 10th decade, stuck with a daughter whose favorite pattern is “Compostable” by Chinet and who conveys her deepest emotions by text, usually with GIFs from TV comedies.
Finally, my mom agrees to text invitations — sadly without a video snippet of Tina Fey gorging on tres leches cake on “Weekend Update.”
My mom loves it when thumbs up and hearts blossom on the electronic string.
A week later, only a couple of people haven’t responded.
That’s when I learn from one of my mom’s neighbor’s, Amy, that two other neighbors, Ginny and Kathy, whom she was pretty sure would have been invited, have not received my text.
Amy guesses I might have sent the invite to Ginny’s home number instead of her cell number, which she rarely gives out. So Amy supplies the elusive number, and I zap a fresh invite to Ginny’s cell.
I should say “a Ginny’s cell.” And yes, in literature class, this would be called foreshadowing.
Next, I retrace my steps with Kathy.
Voila. I’ve sent the invite to another Kathy, so I tap out a new message to Neighbor Kathy, who responds with a heart.
I think about texting Another Kathy to say, “Never mind,” but she hasn’t responded so I let it go. (Insert suspenseful music.)
Meanwhile, Ginny replies with a conditional “yes” because she is recovering from chemo.
Wow. I am not aware that Ginny has cancer. I text her back, suggesting that she walk over to the party if she feels like it that day. No advanced notice required.
She pins a heart to my message.
To close the loop, I let Amy and Kathy know that Ginny plans to come if she recovers from chemo in time.
Amy and Kathy’s eyebrows shoot up. Ginny does not have cancer.
We all sleep on the unfortunate news of . . . someone’s cancer.
The next morning, feeling that something is off, I review my text to Ginny.
Oooooo.
Turns out I’ve texted a tennis friend named Ginny, who indeed is waging a successful battle against cancer.
She lives in Thomasville.
She doesn’t know my mom.
Yet she has pinned a heart to the invitation to walk down to my mom’s house.
What the . . . ? I admit my blunder to Tennis Ginny, who cops her own confession.
“I admit I didn’t know where I was going to walk to find a cupcake soiree,” she says.
Incidentally, this is why I love Tennis Ginny. She’s always game for fun, even if she’s not sure where to find it.
Resolving to wear glasses while texting, I call Neighbor Ginny, hoping for a voice on the other end.
These days, I know, calling someone in real time indicates either a dire emergency or an extremely juicy nonemergency with more details than two thumbs can handle.
This isn’t either, but Neighbor Ginny picks up without a hint of wariness. God Bless the Greatest Phone-Answering Generation.
She laughs her hearty New Englander laugh when I explain the situation.
I’m relieved at her forgiveness, which I find that older people grant easily, maybe because they need it themselves — as if the rest of us don’t.
Cupcake Day arrives.
The weather is perfect.
My mom’s neighbors stream through her door. I greet them and thank them for coming. A car pulls up.
“Who’s that?” someone asks.
I crane my neck.
“I don’t know,” I say, watching an elegantly dressed lady emerge with a potted flower.
She smiles as she steps through the door.
For the life of me, I cannot retrieve a name.
“I’m so glad . . . you could come!” I say, taking the amaryllis from her.
My mom lights up at the sight of her, hugs her and introduces her to her neighbors.
“This is my friend, Kathy, from church.”
Of course. Another Kathy is Church Kathy, who sometimes shuttles my mom to a prayer retreat. We communicate by text from time to time.
As it turns out, Church Kathy also used to live in my mom’s neighborhood and knows a couple of party guests. She wades in and charms the throng.
I find Neighbor Kathy in the kitchen.
“This just keeps getting better,” I whisper.
She snickers and shrugs: “It seems to be working out.”
Indeed. If Church Kathy thinks it’s odd that she was invited to “walk over” for a cupcake — from wherever she lives now — she never lets on.
If anyone else thinks it’s odd that a non-neighbor — albeit a former neighbor — is stirred into the mix, they never let on.
If my mom thinks she’d better lobby for handwritten invitations next time, she never lets on.
If I think that my husband, who makes fun of me for having more than 1,000 contacts in my phone, might be onto something, I never let on.
Surrounded by friends who are happy to be together, no matter how they got there, my mom is in heaven.
Surrounded by grace — some of it self-administered — I am, too.
