Guest Post By My Mum: A Great Surprise

The last guest post by my Mum was in February; you can read it here if you missed it. Half a year later, what better reason for a new guest post could there be than her 70th birthday, which we celebrated not just for the one night but for nearly a whole week!

Celebrities always get photographed when they make a speech.

How that festive week started is what my Mum wants to tell you about:

A Great Surprise

As you all learned from Meike's next-to-last post, I turned 70 last week. I really cannot believe this, where did time go so fast?

So we decided to invite friends and relations and celebrate it one evening long. But it was going to be different...

As we have relations in Southern France (Provence), and they don't of course make the journey here only for one night, they were supposed to arrive already on the Sunday afternoon (my birthday was the following Tuesday). I baked an apple-cake (of course with apples from our allotment), and my daughters were expected to join us for coffee and cake.

On that Sunday afternoon, the doorbell rang, I pushed the door-opener and up the stairs came a lady who looked quite familiar to me. I thought: She looks like Bernadette, probably she has come to the neighbour next door. Then she smiled at me, and another person came up the stairs, and it was, I could hardly believe it: Bernadette's  husband, Walter! I finally understood it was really them - my dear angels from down under!!! [The original guest post by my Mum about her friends from Australia is here.]

I called out for my husband, he hurried to the door because he thought something bad had happened, but by that time my daughters had also arrived at the top of the stairs and I finally welcomed everybody in.

What a surprise! I never, never thought they would come, all the long way from Australia (about 34 hours all in all), so I hugged and kissed them very intensively.

The relations from France arrived later, we opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate this great event. And so the whole week went on, meals, coffees, sightseeing, shopping, most of it with or by my dear daughters. Bernadette and Walter left on Saturday for another week in France, the Black Forest and at last Frankfurt Airport.

The photos of Tuesday evening from my birthday party at the Park-Café you can see here on Meike's post. We also had friends from Berlin and other far away places in Germany, but Bernie and Wal were top of the list!

I have to thank my girls for having organized everything, after this week of celebration I really felt like a celebrity! I also thank Meike's blog readers who sent congratulations and wishes for me as comments in her next-to-last post.

And last but not least, deeply out of my heart I thank all the good powers that be, which have been safe-guarding and protecting me for all my long and mostly wonderful life.

- - - End of guest post - - -

That really was something! My sister and I had known since November of Bernadette's and Walter's intention to be here for the birthday, and believe me - it wasn't easy to keep it a secret! The hotel where they took a room is a place we sometimes go to for family meals, and so we had to speak to them, too, so that nobody would accidentally mention the guests from Australia to my parents. Also, the Park-Café people needed telling, and I instructed them not to mention the two extra guests when my mother would be in touch about the food, the flowers or anything else.
The surprise worked out very well, and we spent a happy and eventful week with friends and family. I was sad to see them go but hope they will be here again in a few years' time.