Pay It Forward

Chris' cake January 2015

       The summer before Amanda started kindergarten, I quit the day care job so the girls and I could hang out together for a few months – who knew when we would have that luxury again? And after school began – this was August of 1992 – I started answering want ads and sending out resumes to find a lab job – which I finally got in April of '93.

       The birthday policy at MAS at the time was that every once in a while when the office manager got a craving for sweets, she would go to the grocery store and order a cake and have the names of everyone who had had a birthday since the last time she had gotten cake written on the top – and we would celebrate in the breakroom. Everyone did get a card on one's birthday – signed by everyone else and put into one's mailbox. It was nice to have birthdays acknowledged, but I got to thinking how special Ada's way of doing birthdays was and it didn't take that much more effort.

Nancy and Anthony and Honey Bun Cake February 2015

        A year after I started at MAS, the office manager's birthday was coming up, and I asked another admin if someone was doing something for the impending birthday? The admin said that she would purchase a cake this time, but she was dang well not going to do it and have everyone thinking it was her job to get cake for every birthday – not gonna happen. It was said with a lot of attitude. The memory of Ada again came to mind, and my mouth opened, and I said to the admin, “How about you get the cake for the office manager, and then give me a list of everyone else's birthdays, and I will do cake for one year.”

Paul with spice cake and caramel frosting

        She had the list to me by the end of the day.

        A one year commitment gave me an out if I found it to be too much for me to squeeze in to a hectic schedule – but at least I could try to be Miss Ada for one circling of the sun.

        That was about four hundred cakes ago.

Mike cutting his cake April 2015

        Everyone has told me how wonderful I am for being the cake lady. But they do not realize, they have no idea, that I am the taker here, not the giver. To be in control of the birthday cards that have somehow been so on the mark (honestly, the cards jump off the shelf at me and turn out to be perfect!), to be the one who has put the lights in the eyes when folks walk into the breakroom after cake has been announced, to have the privilege of passing on this Ada tradition – has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life!

        And I thank MAS so very much from the bottom of my heart - for allowing me this indulgence!

Epicureans all!

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