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shewhomust
Today would have been my sister Gabrielle's fiftieth birthday. Doubly shocking, that my baby sister should reach fifty, and that in fact no, she never did reach fifty, she died at 42.She entered her forties with a bang, though, with the most amazing party I have ever attended. Gabrielle was not in the habit of giving parties. She preferred to keep her friends separate: we might not like each other, or, worse, we might like each other and gang up on her. So her decision to have a big fortieth birthday party was a surprise - and then, with hindsight, felt like the beginning of a new phase, a period in her life when her friends and family needed to know each other as we came to deal with her illness.
But the party was wonderful. Gabrielle never did anything by halves.
It was hosted by a friend whose first floor flat had access down some steps from a balcony into a long narrow garden - and, by a fortunate accident of timing, he had just bought a new fridge, and not yet disposed of the old one, which he moved out into the garden with a long extension lead, so that the sparkling wine flowed pleasantly chilled indoors and outdoors alike. One of my friends who is a textiles wizard sewed bunting, yard upon yard of pink triangles (what else?), and my brother's ceilidh band played in the garden. There was food and drink and friends and relations, all in superabundance (clearing up afterwards we found an entire chocolate cake untouched).
At the end of the party, there were fireworks, and we saw curtains twitching all along the two streets whose gardens ran end to end in a sort of enclosed theatre, as all the neighbours came to watch - as if they were joining the party too.
Gabrielle wasn't always an easy person - she made demands, and she didn't compromise. I'm glad that occasionally I got to see why this was a good thing, too.
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Date: 2006-08-04 05:31 am (UTC)Nine
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Date: 2006-08-05 12:42 am (UTC)