My Mother gave me her “Burns Birthday Book” when I was around 12 and I have added my own friends' birthdays to it since then. The book is dedicated ”To Bette-Joan, With love and Birthday Wishes, (Aunt) Ede January 31, 1945” and I suppose she received it around her 12th birthday too.  Opening the loose spined little book and leafing through its brittle pages I read names of friends and family, some who have drifted out of my and my Mom’s lives, people who are no more than memories. Each day is marked with a short line of Burns’ poetry and for years now I have familiarized myself with and pictured another of Burns poems for his birthday, January 25th, 1759.

A h-uile la sona dhuibh   ‘s gun la idir dona dhuibh!