An elderly lady, living in an old age home, spent her days greeting people with the same expression: It’s my birthday! Come to my party!

For years everyone assumed she had some form of dementia as her only words in response to everything was: It’s my birthday! Come to my party!

Only one person had the patience and persistence to spend enough time with this frail elderly lady in an attempt to get past her standard mono-sentence response.

Inevitably the frail widow, who did not have any children during her lifetime, passed on. At the very sparsely attended funeral the one person who had made the effort to get to know her, asked permission to say a few words about the recently departed elderly lady. This person was the one who had persisted long enough to find out who this lady really was.

The elderly lady was one of the few survivors who walked out of the NAZI concentration camps at the end of the Second World War, in 1945. She had lost her entire family, relatives and friends in these concentration camps.

After the war, she had met and married a man who unfortunately predeceased her by many years and, unable to have had any children, she was left alone once again, eventually ending up at an old age home in her twilight years.

As a survivor of the concentration camps she always realized that her life had been spared, while everyone else she knew and loved had perished.

She considered every day that she was alive to be a blessing and gift. She truly embraced every new day as another day that she was privileged to have, on this earth.

She treated every single day, no matter how she felt physically or emotionally, to be her rebirth day. She knew how lucky she was still to be alive that day. She took no day for granted.

What people thought was dementia in her greeting or response Its my birthday come to my party! was her acknowledgement and celebration of her life that day.

The few people who bothered to turn up at the funeral to pay their last respects came away with a gift of knowledge from this elderly lady that would improve their lives and their attitudes immensely.

Perhaps you can all learn to celebrate the gift of this day it shall not come again in this lifetime. Make it count!