August 8th
One of my best friends from high school and I are almost exactly a year apart - her birthday just two days after mine. And so each year on July 30th we celebrate Same Age Day - the one day a year when, numerically, we are the same age.
I'm not great at knowing when things are (from knowing birthdays off the top of my head, to the start date of a planned vacation) but the real problem is that I'm TERRIBLE at knowing what today is (so while I might know your birth date off the top of my head I'll probably still miss it not realizing that today is that date). So why then did yesterday, August 8th, feel like a date that was easy to hold onto all day, and a date that for some reason I should remember? have memory attached to?
Thanks to the modern wonder that is Google Photo "Rediscover this Day" I was shown that 5 years ago August 8th was our one day home with Liam before he went back into the NICU. Like a not fun version of Same Age Day - more like Cape Cod traffic changeover day? a hinge day between one NICU and the next?
After 55 days in the BIDMC NICU, we woke up as a family of four all under one roof. We spent the day with family stopping by, walking up and down the street with a baby who didn't seem quite comfortable and as the day progressed couldn't really settled, and then after Nathan went to bed I drove to the Winchester emergency room very concerned about his breathing. He was in the Winchester NICU for another week before finally coming home for good on August 15th.
And yet, now August 8th is just a date that I don't usually notice, although for some reason this year I did. What a gift to have let that chapter (for the most part) go.