This idea was a combo out of an old movie on cable and actually my mother helped me with it too.
Birthday Celebrations
By Steph
May 1, 1974
Helen and Peter Belden sat in Helen’s room and anxiously waited for the nurse to come in. They had just welcomed their third child that morning and were waiting for them to bring her in from the nursery.
Helen said, "Peter, I’m so happy we finally have a little girl! Although I hope she doesn’t mind being named Beatrix too much, but it is a name in both our families."
Peter said, "And she’s a beauty with such a pair of lungs! With your blue eyes and fair curly hair, she is going to knock them dead someday. I wonder what she’ll grow up to be?"
Helen said, "I think she is going to go places no other woman in the family ever has before. And she is going to have a wonderful life!"
The nurse finally brought the pink wrapped bundle in and as they held their daughter, Peter said, "Helen, I have a funny feeling this little girl is going to be an adventurer, a dreamer, and very happy. I can’t wait to find out!"
May 1, 1999
Trixie Belden Frayne woke up on the morning of her 25th birthday to see her handsome husband, Jim Frayne, serving her breakfast in bed with a rose in hand as he had on her last birthday and said he would every year for the rest of their lives. They had been married for two and half years.
She kissed him good morning and he said, "Happy birthday, sweetheart. How are you feeling? I let you sleep through the 2 am feeding this morning and gave Katie a bottle. At five days old she is already the second most beautiful girl in the world, although I may be a little prejudiced in that department."
Trixie said, "I agree with you but she is the most beautiful, not second most beautiful. Is Moms awake? It was nice of her to agree to stay with us for a week to help out after we came home. I have to admit that twenty-five hours of labor wasn’t easy but it was well worth it."
Trixie and Jim sat down in bed together and enjoyed their breakfast until they heard a cry from the bassinet near their bed.
Jim picked up his daughter and handed her to Trixie and she said, "She’s perfect but let’s wait awhile before we have another."
Jim said, "I agree. Even being the nervous father to be is difficult in the delivery room. I think we can wait a bit!"
After feeding and changing their daughter they headed down to the kitchen where Mrs. Belden was finishing putting dishes in the dishwasher.
She said, "Every time I use this state of the art, 1990s style dishwasher, I think about how appropriate it was that Jim presented you with this as well as a ring when you became engaged."
Jim said, "I knew she wouldn’t marry me if I didn’t. I have my first class to teach in the morning in a few minutes so I’m going to head over to the school. I’ll be back later." He kissed Trixie and hugged Mrs. Belden and was off.
After he left, Mrs. Belden said, "I was thinking about when you were born. It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty-five years and now you have a baby of your own. Warning--the next twenty-five years are going to go very fast! And Brian now is a doctor and working at Sleepyside Hospital and as Jim’s school doctor. Mart runs the farm on the school and teaches. You and Honey with your agency. Di at the museum and Dan in New York working his way up through the ranks. Everything has really turned out the way you all always dreamed. Now if we could only get your brothers to get the move on with Honey and Di. I like being a grandmother a lot but those two couples aren’t even married yet!"
Trixie laughed and said, "Give them time. They better act fast though because I know that Di and Honey are both beginning to think that they’ll be a hundred before Brian and Mart propose."
Mrs. Belden said, "Maybe seeing you and Jim with little Katie will help them see how perfect it can be. But I thought your beautiful Thanksgiving wedding might push them in the right direction."
Trixie said, "I never ever thought in my wildest dreams that life could be this wonderful. Last night after dinner I was feeding Katie in the rocking chair Jim made for me, which he started the day we found out we were expecting, and watched him grade papers in bed. The simplest things are pure heaven."
Mrs. Belden said, "I remember the day you came home from that ride right after your 16th birthday, eyes shining and obviously something major had happened. When you confided in me that you had just had your first kiss and I saw your face, I knew you were in love."
Trixie said, "But it took another year before we realized it and then our college years when I went to Northwestern and we barely saw each other during the school year and then him shocking me with the proposal upon my return to Sleepyside after graduation. Of course, I accepted and then we had our wedding in the backyard. Then the school started, the agency, and now our precious daughter."
Mrs. Belden said, "Twenty-five years from now you’re probably going to be sitting at this table with Katie having a birthday celebration and maybe she’ll be married with children of her own. Time flies by and enjoy every minute of happiness."
That night they had a small party for her at the house. Katie already had the entire family wrapped around her little finger. All three of her uncles just doted on her. Her four grandparents were crazy about being grandparents already. Already both Mr. Belden and Mr. Wheeler were talking semi-retirement to spend time with their grandchildren.
At the end of the party, Jim gathered everyone around and said, "This is a toast to my beautiful wife and all the happiness she has brought to my life--all our lives really-- and to the love and happiness ahead." He kissed her as everyone joined in the toast.
May 1, 2024
Trixie woke up to breakfast in bed on her 50th birthday to see her handsome husband holding out the traditional red rose for her and they kissed. After twenty-seven and a half years of marriage they were still as in love as ever before.
Jim said, "Billy just called a few minutes ago. Katie’s in labor. Maybe our first grandchild will arrive on your birthday. Wouldn’t that be perfect?"
Trixie jumped up and jumped into the shower and changed quickly after seeing Jim was already dressed and ready to go and they hurried out to their car and over to Sleepyside Hospital.
When they arrived they saw their parents, awaiting the birth of their first great-grandchild, and also Regan and his wife, Joan who were the proud parents of Katie’s husband, William Daniel Regan.
Mrs. Belden said, "Happy 50th, Trixie and what a way to celebrate it! Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. I should know from experience, having thirteen grandchildren of my own!"
Trixie and Jim had two other daughters Shana, who was 22, and Beth, 14, and two sons, James the third, 20, and Michael, 16.
Brian and Honey had finally married and had three children themselves-- Brian Peter, 23, Helen Madeleine, 19, and Mark Jonathan, 13.
Mart and Di had married the last of all the Bob-White couples and had two children, Mart, Jr., 16, and Susan Mary, 10.
Bobby had married Di’s younger sister, Emily, a few years earlier and they had five-year-old triplets, Robert, Jr., Samantha Louise, and Jennifer Ann.
Dan had married Hallie and they lived in Idaho where he was chief of the state police and she helped run her father’s mining business. They came back to Sleepyside to visit as often as possible and everyone really missed them.
Soon some of the children arrived and waited with them. They all waited nervously in the waiting room and all jumped up when Billy Regan came in with a big wide grin on his face and they gathered around him to hear the news.
He said, "We have a beautiful baby girl. 8 pounds even and 20 inches long and we’ve named her Kilheen Mary."
They all hurried over to the nursery where they admired the beautiful baby and then went to Katie’s room where she said, "Moms, I hope I didn’t disrupt your birthday too much!"
Trixie said, "Kilheen is the most wonderful birthday present anyone has ever been presented with in the history of the world. How are you feeling, sweetheart?"
Katie said, "Tired and sore but absolutely wonderful. You’d think by the year 2024 labor and delivery would be much easier but it is still the same as it was twent-five and fifty years ago, I guess"
After leaving the hospital, Trixie and Jim went home where he poured some champagne in glass and toasted her and their new grandchild. She had her birthday party as planned a couple of weeks late, knowing that Katie had been due in late April.
May 1, 2049
Trixie Frayne waited in a chair off to the side of the small room in the back of the church as nervous as she had been on her wedding day herself but, besides being her 75th birthday, it was the wedding day of her oldest grandchild, Kilheen Regan.
A few moments later she saw whom she was waiting for, her husband of over fifty years, Jim, as handsome as ever with snow white hair replacing the old red and still looking handsome and distinguished. They had retired a few years earlier and now were enjoying their golden years, traveling all over the world seeing their children and their twenty-three grandchildren.
They kissed and he handed her a rose and said, "I forgot this this morning in the rush to get ready to leave. Happy birthday, darling."
They kissed again and then Trixie headed into the bride's room where Kilheen was nervously preparing. She was wearing a beautiful replica of Trixie’s wedding dress which had also been her mother's and also Katie’s.
Trixie said, "Sweetheart, you look beautiful. All of you do. I wish your great-grandparents could see this day. They always loved weddings and with four children, thriteen grandchildren and forty-seven great-grandchildren, there have certainly been many in the family history already."
Kilheen said, "Thanks, Grandma. You look beautiful yourself. And so young I think you really could still have that agency with Aunt Honey. But Moms, I’m so proud of you for taking it over like Uncle Jim took over the school for Grandpa. I just hope that someday I can live up to the precedent all the women in the family have set."
They all hugged and Trixie went back to the vestibule where she saw Brian and Honey, Mart and Di, and Dan and Hallie having a little reunion of the old club with Jim. Trixie walked up and hugged them all. They had shared so much over the sixty odd years of the club and the old clubhouse was even still standing with their grandchildren now being members of the club. They had kept it nice over the years with a lot of hard work and the original club members liked going back to see it every once in awhile.
Finally, the wedding started. Kilheen was marrying Thomas Delanoy the third, grandson of Tom and Celia Delanoy. The wedding went along perfectly as she was escorted proudly by her father and her four grandparents watched proudly from the front pews of the beautiful church.
At the reception, Jim toasted Trixie on her 75th birthday as well as the newlyweds and said that the next twenty-five years were going to be perfect.
May 1, 2074
On her hundredth birthday, Trixie Frayne woke up in the home of her great-granddaughter, Helen Beatrix Delanoy, and headed downstairs as she smelled eggs and bacon cooking.
Even though she was a hundred years old, Trixie felt like she was still young but she missed her husband, who had died right after their 75th anniversary. But he had seen so many good things happen, the school was still wonderful in the hands of Tom and Kilheen and they had five wonderful children, twenty-three grandchildren and sixty great-grandchildren. The family was in wonderful hands.
After breakfast she spent the day with her granddaughter, just having fun, and Helen recorded what her great-grandmother said on a tape recorder as she recounted her life.
She said,"The real turning point came when your great-grandaunt Honey moved into Manor House with your great-great-grandparents and then I met your great-grandfather and the more I reflect on it, it was love at first sight although it was years before we realized it. It was three years before we even kissed. If you think that is quaint now it was positively weird back in those days. The only time we ever were apart was when I went to school in Illinois. Those years weren’t easy on us but we still were in love when I came home and we married soon afterwards. The agency I had all those years was a dream Honey and I had that we fulfilled right after Jim and I married and soon after that we welcomed your grandmother. The years have flown by but all our dreams came true. I have had a wonderful life."
The End