The Best Birthday

Prison is really a microcosm of a macro outside world. In here we also create our own families, which mimic those on the outside. There are prison moms, wives, husbands, kids, etc. Of course, I too have joined in on the community and have a prison family. One of the members of my family is my son, C. C, is a light-hearted, brilliant, Shakespeare-loving poet from the D. My son has grown closer to my prison wife (my bunkie) and me since her friend, Red, left about a month ago to go to county (the SHU [Special Housing Unit]) because of an incident at her job. The self-proclaimed "space invader", C, spent hours and hours with my bunkie and me as she grieved Red's absence. 

Today is C's birthday. Yesterday we had a small "family" gathering to celebrate her last year of being in her 20s. The day was perfect with one exception, Red not being there. Well, today, the 13th of March, is her actual birthday and she received the biggest gift, Red returned. I have never seen my son so happy and I was happy too. I know how it feels to be away from your prison family. Even when I was on furlough, I missed them dearly.

Ironically, my prison son and work wife are birthday twins (they share the same birthday). We had a birthday dinner for my work wife and C was invited. C was so, so happy, the happiest I have seen her in over a month. My work wife was as well. Although this is not the ideal place to spend special days such as birthdays we all have learned to make the best of what we have. My work wife stated that this birthday made her top five most memorable birthdays. That says a lot considering that she spent one of her birthdays in Hawaii. 

We are so blessed to have one another. This will be the last prison birthday for all of us. Next year we will all be free to celebrate with our other families and friends.