My 65th birthday is today. Birthdays used to be exciting days for me, especially when I was younger. My attitude toward my birthdays has changed dramatically over the years. After more than 60 returns, it’s no longer as important to me. Instead, I’m grateful to be alive and to have survived all of the assaults on my health and life.

What about the party, people ask? No special birthday parties! Every day is a party! Every day, I celebrate that I am still alive.

Greg smiling and holding his strawberry cake in two hands.

Strawberry Cake at last!

My mother would always ask what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday. A strawberry cake, please! Every year I got a pineapple cake. It was delicious, but pineapples aren’t the same as strawberries. There were no strawberries in the height of winter (snow and all), and the pineapples came from a can. Childhood challenges!

Wonderful days. Fond memories. Times have changed, we’ve grown older, and now strawberries are available all year round.

The little things in life are the most meaningful (strawberries)!

Endless kisses to my gorgeous wife for getting me a strawberry cake.

Over the last 65 years, medical knowledge and technology have evolved tremendously. Without it, I doubt I would be alive today.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making that progress possible!

Let’s keep on living and enjoying each day to the fullest.