They want me to help!

I turned 72 yesterday. Where did that time go. The other day I was visiting a fire station and chatting with the officer, a man I have known for nearly 27 years. We were talking about the age of some of the fire fighters and joking that when I began as chaplain, he was one of the youngest serving fire fighters.  Then he said, "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you, Dave?" "I'll be 72 this weekend. Getting old. I wonder where the time went?" He grinned, "Hell" he said, "You are a very young 72 year old!" Sometimes I feel every bit a 72 year old, at other times I feel like a young man. At times I talk about somebody I met as an "Elderly man" then suddenly realise that he was probably actually younger than me! I have got old without knowing it. I think mixing with younger people keeps you younger in mind.

So I turned 72, yesterday. On Saturday we packed up and went to Karitane, a sea side village about a half hour drive north from our place. We had the loan of a little cottage there for a couple of nights just as a bit of a relax. As we were packing I went to the mail box to check for letters. There were no birthday cards nor presents for me. I said to my wife, "My kids have forgotten my birthday." It clashes with "Father's Day" here in New Zealand and all my boys are fathers, so I figured that they were distracted. We had skyped twice with my son in Edinburgh, we are worried about him and his family with the runaway Covid 19 situation there. I felt a bit dejected. But I was wrong.

On Sunday, my birthday, my daughter and her husband came out to join us at our cottage for a birthday lunch. Just as dessert began she came into the room with a bag with two reasonably small heavy boxes in it. "This is from the boys and me." she said. I unwrapped this "Stanley Impact driver". Then she told me the story of the boys discussing it and even talking her through the purchase on the phone in the hardware store. My phone rang, and it was my oldest son, checking that I liked my present. He chatted about it and why he recommended it. Then he said, "You can bring it when you work on my house." He went on to say that my youngest son wants me to take it with me when I work on the fences at his house this summer. "I'm not working with him, he abuses me worse than you do!" I joked. He laughed and said, "I told him you enjoy it!" A little while later my youngest son rang, and wished me happy birthday, and asked if I liked my present. He told me that he was going to build fences and hoped I would come and help him. "You can bring your impact driver!" he said. When I hung up, my daughter's husband said that they had started to do renovations on their last room in their house. "Your help would be welcome!" he said, "It is a long job for just us two." We had helped them rebuild the back part of their elderly house. We had helped them insulate and reline every other room in the house, now they were asking for our help to complete the job. 

As I reflected on my birthday I felt warm, loved and wanted. Each one of my children are better than I am at DIY stuff, but I had helped them get into it. I simply love that they still wanted me to work on their projects with them as a 72 year old! My youngest son is now a qualified carpenter. My oldest boy sets up displays and exhibitions in the National Museum. My daughter and her husband are very accomplished at renovating. They have a flair for design and colour and are fussy about the finished job.  My son in Edinburgh does marvellously around his house. He goes on line and finds out the correct way to do things and does well, better than I would. Yet I LOVE that they all want to work with me. My boys give me a hard time, teasing me while I work. "Come on Brown," my youngest says, "Time is money!" I get out my folding rule to measure something, and my oldest boy will say, "Put that old bit of crap away, and measure it properly with a tape!" "Have you got that measurement right?" "Don't muck around thinking about it, do it!" My Edinburgh boy will say, "Nah, let me show you how it's done old man!" and so it goes on. But I think they feel more confident with me there. I think they like showing off their skills to me, and enjoy the time with their old Dad. The birthday present, I loved. I used one my son had in Edinburgh and have coveted one ever since. But the fact that they still like working with me warmed my heart and made this old guy feel good. 

I had been given an old table saw without a motor. We checked out how much a motor would cost and found out that they were selling new table saws for less than it would cost to get a suitable motor. I had been given a donation for doing a funeral recently, so we decided that for my birthday we would purchase this new table saw. I am reasonably well equipped now for building stuff. I've had a very profitable birthday.