![\"\"](\"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/kite.jpg\" "\\"kite\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nSally and Alice had colluded in the birthday surprise, inviting Golly Gosh regulars on behalf of the shopping girls who now waited, giggly and excited and a little nervous; their friend\u2019s special birthday.\u00a0 A birthday that, ten years ago, they were afraid to believe was possible.<\/p>\n
They squealed with delight when they saw the cake and hugged Alice in gratitude; the red ballet shoes reflecting their friend\u2019s personality to perfection.\u00a0\u00a0They knew she\u00a0had never regretted her decision all those years ago but\u00a0also knew that the sadness and loss\u00a0leading to that decision\u00a0would never dampen her love of dance.<\/p>\n
Where is she?<\/em><\/p>\n Sally stood at the window watching.<\/p>\n She\u2019s coming …and Noah is with her!<\/em><\/p>\n Today, the dancer thought she was simply meeting her friends for some tea and cake. \u00a0In fact, she was.<\/p>\n Noah followed her through the door as everyone jumped up in unison. Happy Birthday!<\/em>\u00a0 Renditions of happy birthday to you rang out\u00a0from voices with happy\u00a0smiling faces, their tears mixed in with laughter and jubilation; party poppers and champagne corks; flowers and presents and fragrances that reminded her of Jerusalem; and\u00a0beautiful ballet shoes taking centre stage.<\/p>\n Surprise and disbelief overcame her and she stood, still, like a beautiful statue\u00a0with eyes glistening and tears welling up.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what to say.\u00a0 I’m speechless.\u00a0 This is such a surprise … I had no idea!\u00a0\u00a0 You’re all so kind and I wish you knew how much you mean to me.\u00a0 This place, this wee place, Sally, Alice, everyone else, you’ve been there for me and I couldn’t have done it without you.\u00a0 You’re like my family.<\/em><\/p>\n So much for you being speechless!<\/em><\/p>\n Have a glass of bubbly, birthday girl!\u00a0 What about you Noah, what would you like?<\/em><\/p>\n Can I have an orange juice please Sally?<\/em><\/p>\n Is this yours?<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s my new kite.\u00a0 Auntie Jan promised to take me to the beach to fly it before dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 She said we’re going to chase the wind.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s exciting!\u00a0 Better make sure she doesn\u2019t have too much champagne then!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You can’t remake the world Without remaking yourself. Each new era begins within. ~ Ben Okri Sally and Alice had colluded in the birthday surprise, inviting Golly Gosh regulars on behalf of the shopping girls who now waited, giggly and excited and a little nervous; their friend\u2019s special birthday.\u00a0 A birthday that, ten years ago, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9,31,11,7,8,10,5],"tags":[150,84,85,86,47,159,152,59,148,27,149,151,88,146,87],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2zQgS-7h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1773,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions\/1773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gollygoshcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}