Birthday week will be over tomorrow. That is, the week of June 6-June 12 is birthday week in our family because we’re always busy, busy, busy with the brithdays of Hepcat, Manhattan Granny, and Teen Spirit.

Hepcat’s birthday was an impromptu dinner at Black Pearl on Union Street thrown together on Tuesday afternoon. To all those we didn’t contact: trust me, it was really thrown together.

The Black Pearl was unbelievably accomodating when we walked in needing a table for 15. They created a long banquet table in the back and treated our party very, very well (a Tuesday night bonanza for the waiters, as well).

The menu, a mix of Italian seafood, pizza, and other specialties is beautifully presented and delicious. The seafood risotto and the grilled tuna, are especially good.

Next up was Manhattan Granny’s big birthday luncheon for 16 family members, at the Gramercy Park Tavern. Without revealing the number, suffice it to say, it was an important one and she was feted in an appropriate and quite extravagant way: a party worthy of its guest of honor.

Teen Spirit’s birthday is Monday June 12th and, well, it’s a surprise. After Manhattan Granny’s party, Hepcat and I went down to the West Village to shop for his gift. Can’t say now, but he should like it a great deal.

Here is the poem I read at my mother’s luncheon (her maiden name was Edna Mae Wander and  childhood friends would tease: Edna may wander but not very far…). Other family members also spoke beautifully about my mom.

Edna Mae wander
and sometimes quite far
wherever she went
she followed her star

She knew what she wanted
It was always the best
her discriminating eye,
her passion, her zest

First she wandered to camp
where she danced and much more
she made lifelong friends ,
it was called Camp Lenore

Then to New London she traveled
that small Coast Guard city
she studied, she read
she always looked pretty 

Next stop Greenwich Village
conventional she was not
she ate hot chocolate pudding
right out of the pot

In Nantucket she found him
He was smart, fun and wordy
they wed at the Savoy
she was just over thirty

Then they crossed the great ocean
bought a small English car
they traveled through Europe
they wandered quite far

Then her stomach got big
she always felt full
she gave birth to girl twins
in the French Hospital

She wandered some more

to the Upper West Side
where she found 8 beautiful rooms
on Riverside Drive

Her wanderings continued
on the Queen Mary, the France
The family traveled to Europe
in ocean liner elegance

As her daughters grew older
she faced the big "D"
she reinvented herself
at the great I.C.P

Edna still wanders
to San Francisco, Italy
She goes to Park Slope
on the old IRT.

To visit her children
and grandchildren, too
she always brings Zabars
for Henry, Alice and Hugh

And Sonya, the baby,
is Edna’s new muse
for whom she buys Petit Matin
and Elaphaten shoes

Edna still wanders
she takes classes and learns
at Columbia, at Barnard
the passion still burns

So at the Gramercy we gather
for our mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend
Our best wishes are yours
and love without end