Harvest Moon Birthday Girls

How Do You Celebrate Birthdays When the Kids are Grown?

Photo taken by Author in 1999. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. My daughter Megan (left) and my niece Merehuka (right) both not quite seven years old born one day apart.

Today my daughter Megan turned 31 years old and yesterday my niece Merehuka also turned 31. They’re first cousins born one day apart, my Libra girls — and this year they were born under the Harvest Moon. Merehuka grew up in New Zealand and moved to Portland, Oregon when she turned 18. Whenever she and Megan got together, they immediately connected. They truly are so much alike, you’d think they were twins!

Now Merehuka lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband Cecilio and her two sons, Iyumni (age 11) and Manawa (age two) and Megan lives in LA and works as a stage hand and on movie and TV sets. Though they live different lives, they’re both still connected.

Megan and Merehuka in July 2021, Portland, Oregon. Photo taken by the author yours truly. It was wonderful to see them reconnect once again.

All photos were taken by Author (me) in 1999 who also created this collage many years ago (and who is amazed this exists and wonders where the individual photos of some of these are!) Top left at Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco with my Dad, me, Megan, Merehuka, my sister-in-law Sharon, and my brother Michael. The babies are their one-year-old twin girls. Bottom right in my Dad’s friend’s backyard with the gang above along with my daughter Melissa and son Jeremy.

Happy birthday Megan!! They say it’s your birthday and it is!! Yayy! I love you so much and I wish you were here so we could celebrate together. Today there is a harvest full moon to celebrate your special day. It rose last night, so it’s kind of between your birthday and Merehuka’s. That makes so much sense because I love you both to the moon or a milkshake and back always in forever. You were born 31 years ago at Salem Hospital. I still remember the day you were born as if it were yesterday. You were at 9 1/2 pound baby with bright red hair. Your siblings got to meet you just 15 minutes after you arrived, and we all loved you so much.

I’ve always wanted you to have the best life possible and there were times I wished I could just sprinkle fairy dust on you so that nothing but good things would happen. But life has a way of throwing curveballs at us and sometimes those curveballs hit pretty hard. All I know is that I’m so proud of you and all you’ve…