Last Sunday Mer and I were supposed to go to Aunt Mary’s to get together with some family friends to have a birthday celebration for Aunt Mary. We were to arrive at 2:00, so we slept in and went to the late service at church. Once we got to Aunt Mary’s house, we were joined by the Georges and the George family members who live in the area, “Aunt” Zovie and her son Michael, and eventually Pastor Ken and Janet. I think we had about fifteen or sixteen people in all – it was a rather festive crowd.

Mer and I brought a cake for Aunt Mary, but she had supplied a ton of food – sloppy joes, cupcakes, cookies, chips, and more. It was all comfort food, and quite good, and a lot of it. We all gathered around to sing happy birthday to Aunt Mary, except when we got to the “Happy Birthday, dear Aunt Mary,” I was the only one who sang that. Everyone else sang, “Happy Birthday, dear Matthew.” Aunt Mary, with help from Meredith, had planned all of this as a belated fortieth birthday part for me. Needless to say, I was quite surprised and honored. Aunt Mary had even arranged for Dale and Carlene to call and then for Kelly to call. Mom tried calling, but somehow got the wrong number.

We ate and chatted and had a good and sociable time. After we ate, I was handed tons of bags of presents and cards. The cards were sweet, but I was confused when the first bag present contained women’s clothing. Everyone laughed, and I kept opening more and more assortments of clothing, some men’s and some women’s. I finally figured out that these presents were all donations to The Haven of Rest, a charity for homeless people in Akron. I was delighted that my birthday was a reason to help the poor. That was one of the best gifts I have ever been given.

Mer and I left the party around 5:15. I was touched and very pleased. We then headed back north all the way to Cleveland, to Severance Hall. Severance Hall is the home to the Cleveland Orchestra and, in this case, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. One of Mer’s students plays harp and is in the choir of the Youth Chorus, and her family had given us tickets to see her in a concert last Sunday evening.

The concert was made up of two pieces – Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and Carl Orff’s cantata “Carmina Burana.” The first piece featured harp and the jaw-droppingly good first chair violin player, who is only a junior in high school. So, we got to see a good bit of Mer’s student on harp. The sound produced by a group of high school students was amazing. While I am not a classical music guy, I would have put their performance up against most regional orchestras – they just nailed the performance.

After the intermission, the choir came in, with about eighty members. They sang “Carmina Burana,” which is well known through movies and some TV commercials. Again, they did a fabulous job. The soloists both had great voices, although the second vocalist still needs to work on his power, since I could not always hear him. The full choir kept up with the orchestra with no problems. It was a well-done concert, and was a good end to a good day.

The birthday event kept on giving – last Tuesday, Mer and I were able to go back to Aunt Mary’s for tons of leftovers and an evening of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.