You Only Turn 16 Once

Kyle turned 16-years-old on Tuesday.  However he didn’t get a chance to celebrate the day with me and his step-mom, since he was with his mother arid step-father.

A friend of mine told me that I  should have celebrated his birthday while he was at our home and not at his mother’s home. I decided not to because he went back to his mothers two days before his birthday.

Come to find out, his step-father had to work the swing­ shift. His mother worked all day and then attended a church function that night.

When I called him to wish him a “Happy Birthday,” he didn’t return my call until several hours later. When he did return my call, he told me he was out in the yard working.

Be also he told me that his mom and step-father didn’t have plans to celebrate his birthday and would be doing so over the weekend. It was obvious that he was hurt.

So to cheer him up, I enlisted the help of his God­ mother to sing happy birthday to him. After we were through, there was along silence on the phone and when he spoke, he sounded choked up.

Guess my friend was right; I should have celebrated his birthday on Sunday, even though it was two days earlier. Now I feel like an unthinking, selfish idiot as we all only turn 16 once.