Jip's Birthday Party

The whole country takes the day off on Jip’s birthday. (OK, so she’s not really the reason for the national holiday, but we like to pretend.)

It’s easy for her friends to drop by because they’re not at work. But before this year, Jip always vetoed the idea of having people over. This year she suggested it herself.

Five nursing school classmates showed up in the early afternoon, when Jip is usually chipper. She then surprised us all by kicking everyone out of her room after just 15 minutes.

So the gang and I went to the kitchen and ate the goodies they brought. When we checked in with Jip a little while later, she was grinning and asking us where we’d been. Before long the whole group was belting out popular tunes from back in the day.

Jip’s caregivers watched in amazement from the sidelines. “I don’t know any of those songs,” said one. “I think they were popular before I was even born.”