Lucky to Be Alive

Initially tentative, she soon warmed to the idea after witnessing her mother reaching into the orange colored gourd and extracting a fistful of sinewy strands of pumpkin guts and seeds.  While not necessarily gleeful in her zeal to remove the gooey innards on her own, Emma instead turned her attention to asking Fehmeen a hundred and one questions about the impending jack-o-lantern carving session that was about to take place.  Following pumpkin facial reassignment surgery, Dr 94070 carefully placed the unlit candle inside the hollowed-out piece of fruit currently resting atop the flat eating surface.  Once the wick was set ablaze, the house lights were dimmed in order for the gathered masses of three to sing Happy Birthday and, most importantly, to blow out the candle.  Then Emma slid next to her daddy on the cushion-seated bench so that she could better enjoy the frosting off the top of a perfectly baked cupcake, all the while playing her role in their customary pantomime of her feeding him the food that he is no longer able to consume any more.  The game stretches on for minutes as she regales him with stories about nothing and everything as if it was the most important thing in the world.  And for him, it is.

Moments like this make me feel lucky to be alive.

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