Tuesday 26 January 2016

A Happy Birthday Give-away

Happy Birthday to Me



As the title of this post suggests, today is my birthday. To be precise, I’m turning fifty-three today. I stopped paying real attention to my birthdays some years ago. After all, age is just a number and the older I get the more I feel my mental age is falling ever further behind the numerical reality.

This particular birthday is different though for two, strongly related, reasons.

My mother was fifty-three years young when she unexpectedly died. To put it in very blunt terms; if I live another five months I’ll be older than she ever got to be. This idea is both scary and devastatingly sad. I don’t think I truly knew how young fifty-three actually is until I reached the age myself.

This year also marks the moment in time when I will have had as many years with my mother as I’ve had without her. It is strange to think that from this year forward I will have lived ever more years without her love and support.

So yeah, this particular birthday is not as easy and festive as others have been and future birthdays will hopefully be. Having said that, my mother would be the first to tell me not to dwell on the negatives but to embrace the positives instead. With that in mind I’ve decided to turn today into a celebration.

As you may know, I am Dutch and in the Netherlands we have this wonderful tradition where people give a special treat to others on their birthday. This usually takes the form of cake or something edible along those lines. Since it is not possible to share sweet treats over the internet I’ve decided to do something else.

A few days ago I received my author paperback copies of Scenes from Adelaide Road from Pride Publishing. To celebrate my birthday I will be gifting one signed copy away. In order to win it, all you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post below. I’m happy to send the book to wherever the winner happens to live, so location won’t be an issue. Please leave a way for me to contact you with your comment. I’ll be picking a random winner on Sunday, January 31st.




Good luck and Happy Birthday to Me! 

18 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday, dear friend! Wishing you nothing but love and happiness. Many happy returns xx

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  2. Happy Birthday sweety. I know so good that feeling I just said the same to Claire last week over my DAD. He was 57 and I'm 54 this yr so I had just turned 16!We were so young darlin as we're they.
    Have a great day. Now I've found your blog I'll. Long in more often. ����

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  3. Hahah the??? Should've been kisses hahah

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  4. Happy birthday!!!! What a great prize!!!!

    Oorjanie at yahoo dot com

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  5. Happy Birthday!!! Hope you have an awesome day!! ������. Thanks for the giveaway !

    alkc87@yahoo.com

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  6. Happy birthday. I hope it's a wonderful one. I've heard excellent things about your book but haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, so this would be an awesome opportunity. :)

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  7. Happy birthday, hon. I'd love to get this great sounding book, and thank you for the chance to win.

    npat78@yahoo.com

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  8. Happy Birthday Helena I hope you had a great day it's so great that you have a giveaway please count me in.

    ShirleyAnn(at)speakman40(dot)freeserve(dot)co(dot)uk

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  9. Happy Birthday. I hope you have a great day. I know what you mean about being bittersweet. My mom passed away at 44 - the same age I am now.

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  10. Don't enter me b/c if I win it'll look rigged, but...this...so much this: "I don’t think I truly knew how young fifty-three actually is until I reached the age myself." Ditto, love, ditto. Love you! <3

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  11. Happy Birthday Helena! :) Thank you for all the wonderful stories. <3 You know that you are only as old as you think you are and Mom's live on forever in our hearts <3 Hugs to you!
    gungasyn at gmail dot com

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  12. Happy birthday, Helena! I hope you enjoy your day, even if it is a bit of a difficult birthday for you...
    susanaperez7140(at)gmail(dot)com

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  13. Happy Birthday Helena!
    I am sorry you're feeling bittersweet at this time :\

    leetee2007(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  14. Happy Birthday, Helena. I know your mother is smiling upon you now, proud of the fine person (and mother) you are. And what a wonderful birthday tradition the Dutch practice.

    abbylucinda@yahoo.com

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  15. I hope you had a great birthday.
    helen.jacobsen@yahoo.com

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  16. This give-away is now over and the winner has been contacted; Congratulations Debra Hall!

    Thank you to everybody who participated, for joining in and for your kind words.

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