Bless the Child

It was my dad’s birthday on Wednesday. Very conveniently, the 24th of February is also our beloved Independence Day which means that it is always a bank holiday in Estonia. That, in turn, makes it very easy for all of us to go and visit dad on his birthday as no-one’s at work that day anyway.

We weren’t sure it would be a good idea this year, though. The Covid numbers are up and up and the government advised everyone to stay at home on the bank holiday. In the end me and K. decided we would drive to dad’s for a day, but a couple of days earlier I called S. in Tartu and he said he wouldn’t come with his family. It sounded like a plan, or at least a half-decent thing to do in these circumstances.

On the birthday morning H. (my sister-in-law) told E. (my four year old niece) that they would record a birthday song on a phone and send it to grandad for his birthday. But she also let it slip, accidentally, that aunie Mervi and uncle K. would actually be visiting grandad that day. And then – bless that child! – E. turned into a bit of a drama queen and made a racket and demanded she’d be driven to grandad’s place, too. There was no way she would miss the occasion! She hadn't seen her aunt and uncle for too long a time! So S. called me that morning, a little perplexed, and we cooked up a plan on the spot. It was clear we wouldn’t all cram into dad’s living room but we decided we would all drive to Türi and have a quick birthday lunch outdoors. Now, my dad lives in a boring apartment building around which there’s no place to have a picnic, but we invaded our church that afternoon, brought some chairs and a table from the church building, and put up a nice birthday party right in the middle of the church yard. It wasn't very private, mind you, but it was the best we could come up with. Then we ran around in the snow with kids – there’s still loads of snow waiting to melt – and had the lunch, we drank hot drinks and went inside the church to get warm occasionally (but then, as decent citizens, with masks and distancing). It wasn’t the most comfortable or the longest of birthday lunches – there’s only so much time one can sit in snow – but we pulled it off! No hugging that day, but real joy of being together. (Actually, now that I think of it, we hadn’t been together with the whole family since last summer.)

As we were driving back to Tallinn with K. (I did the driving, by the way, and I was very proud of myself lol) the whole thing made me so very happy. Just to think that it was E. who got us all together! If the whole thing had been left to us, rational adults, to decide, we wouldn’t have met up that day, that’s for sure. But she managed to bring us together, despite of and in the middle of all that tiring reality of worrying and distancing.

One day this disaster will be over and we will be back to normal rhythms of life, one day we won’t have to think about cancelling birthdays and Christmases any more, but what will remain is the sweet memory of celebrating my dad’s birthday in a snowy church yard. This will stay. And although E. might be too little just yet to understand the importance of that birthday, one day in the future I’ll remind her of it and will thank her for bringing this ray of light to our lives during this terrible pandemic. Bless you, my sweet E.!

With E. in birthday snow.