Plans. They are fickle things aren't they?
One of my beautiful sister's (whose, by the way, whimsical creations can be found here) organised and orchestrated a lovely little soiree for her twin's birthday. Private facebook events were made, hidden texting was a plenty, nervous glances were had when in the presence of the unsuspecting sister.

And everything was going smoothly, until the day before the party when said sister announced that she had BRONCHITIS!!!!
I'm gonna go ahead and guess that a chest infection, antibiotics and loud rambucas partying and drinking do not mix.

I spent the morning of the day of the party with my poor, sickly sister over a lovely brunch and thought she looked okay. But as the day progressed her health kinda went belly-up.
She was down.
Sent out a text and everything. She was bailing on the decoy plan of 'drinks in the city with ""a friend"".
My family went into meltdown. Me included. I had spent the whole morning tyring to hide my enthusiasm about her plans for the night, trying to be only vaguely interested when I really! wanted to know if she was going to make it.
Oh the emotional trauma people! Do you know how hard it is to LIE to your sister! At any given moment I was terrified I would just blurt the whole darn story out, just to be done with the inner turmoil.
I know, I'm a gentle soul aren't I. Precious.

The facebook event page was a hive of heated words and vented fustration (by me mostly). The boyfriend wanted to stay home and care for his darling. The sister who flew 2 hours to be at the party wanted it to go ahead. The twin sister who planned the whole she-bang was saying 'listen sista, toughen up, pop a panadol and GET YOUR DANC'N SHOES ON!'
The contents of said facebook page should be published into a book. We'll gather around the table in 20 years time while all of our teenage kids google inappropriate words on their laptops and we'll reminisce. We'll laugh. We'll cry. We'll maybe still harbour some hatred fragile feelings over what was said. But what family doesn't have a disastrous birthday story in it's history somewhere? Well, actually, we didn't. But now we do.

After we all said our two-piece and weighed in, it was decided that telling the birthday girl about the surprise was the only way this ship was going to stay afloat.
Yes. My sister {who had spent lots of dollars and lots of hours and lots of energy dreaming this night into being} had to ruin the surprise for the surprise party that she had planned, to the person who we were supposed to be surprising.
So it's no surprise she was a bit upset.

At hearing the news, birthday girl was, well, surprised. 'Really? For ME?' Oh don't be so coy, you know we love you to the moon and back!
When we all arrived at the birthday girls house en route to the party venue in the city, she was tucked up in bed. Peppermint tea beside her, boyfriend at her beck-and-call, looking pale, weak and generally unwell.
Damn bronchitis. See? No capitals for you anymore. You don't deserve them.
So what was left to do but party without her. The deposit on the venue was non-refundable if no-one turned up. The food platters had been purchased. The balloons and banners were up. The music was on and the lights were off.
A life-size picture of the birthday girl's face was printed and stuck onto a ruler. She had a great time! Posed for lots of pictures. Enjoyed some drinks. Floated around the room attached to a bunch of balloons. Almost escaped via the rooftop balcony once. I caught her around the neck and told her to get back in there, stop being so ungrateful and START HAVING FUN.
What a hoot! The wild girl.
Once the guests had left we took the now subdued group of siblings back to the birthday girls house. We filled her room with the balloons, gave her our last hugs and called it a night.
Will my sister ever plan a surprise birthday party again? I seriously doubt it. This was in fact the THIRD attempt at organising a party for her twin. She's probably in counselling as I type this. Dealing with the aftermath of anxiety and stress.
We partied. But we missed her. We ate the food, enjoyed the balloons, giggled over the embarrasing photos from her childhood. But it felt a little, weird, without her there.
Happy Birthday beautiful 'lil sister. You weren't at your party in person, but you were in our hearts. You were in our smiles. You were in the laughter that filled the air. You were the reason that we all gathered to celebrate and we celebrated the joy, love and beauty that is YOU.
You light up our life girl.
Now hurry up and get better.
xxoo