Happy Birthday Tricia

Happy Birthday little Sister.  It only seems like yesterday since you popped into our lives.  David Cassidy was No.1 in the charts with Daydreamer  .... 'The Way We Were' starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford was in the cinemas and you share your Birthday with Grace Kelly, Auguste Rodin and Cote Depablo (Ziva in NCIS)

In the last year of High School, we were asked in English class to write a story with the title 'Red Letter Day'.  This is my effort, which was published in the 1979 edition of the school magazine, 'The Augustinian'!
Hope you like it and are having a nice birthday.

RED LETTER DAY

I'll never forget the day that my little sister was born, 12th November 1973.  It had already been decided that if the baby was a boy he would be called Michael, and if it was a girl, she would be called Tricia.  My mum had been given the date 28th October to expect the baby to arrive, so you can imagine that by the 11th of November we were all getting very impatient, especially my Mum.  My brother and I kept asking her whether she wanted a boy or a girl.  She told us that she didn't care what it was as long as it was healthy.

It was round about dinner-time on 12th November when my mum finally went into hospital.  I didn't know until i arrived home from school to find my Nanna busily preparing tea.  She and my Grandad had come to look after us while Mum was in hospital.  I was so excited that I could hardly eat my tea!

As soon as my Dad came home from work he went straight out again, this time to the hospital.  He said he would ring us up as soon as there was any news.  He rang up at about seven 'clock, to tell us that the baby hadn't arrived yet.  He rang again at nine o'clock to tell us that the baby had been born, but he wouldn't tell us over the phone whether it was a boy or a girl.  It seemed like hours later when my Dad arrived home, but in fact it was only half an hour.  He came into the lounge with a big smile on his face and announced as if to the world at general, "It's a girl, you've got a little sister!"

We went mad, running around the room and cheering and my Grandad opened a bottle of champagne he had been saving.  It was about midnight by the time I got to bed that night and I couldn't get to sleep for ages.  I had the following morning off school, because my Nanna let us stay in bed late.  When I got to school I told all my friends.  They all made little cards for my Mum which I thought was really nice of them.