I think there might have been a time, say 40 years ago, when my sister would have been a bit upset if I commented on her age in my journal, though I wasn’t publishing my journal in those days. I certainly wasn’t shy when teasing her about her age. She is nearly two years older than I. From her birthday in August until my brother’s birthday in early January the five youngest children in our family are spaced at 2-year intervals. When we were 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, I was the 8. The 2, 4, and 6 were our younger brothers and my sister was the 10. There were two older sisters as well, but that it a longer story. Being the closest to the youngest sister in age gave me a wonderful life-long relationship with her. We have always been close, though there have been plenty of times when the physical distance between our homes has meant that we have gone long times between visits. In recent years, however, we have found ways to visit each other multiple times each year. We were at her home a couple of times in July and she’ll be at our home a couple of times this fall.

Having siblings is one of the blessings of this life, and I feel very fortunate to have a sister who has been by my side as a true supporter for all of my life. I tease her a lot and we joke around when we are together, but we know that we will be there for each other whenever help is needed. She has demonstrated this over and over again through the years.

At any rate, today is her birthday and it is one of those decade birthdays - the ones when your age ends with a zero. Somehow, however, seventy doesn’t seem like as big of a deal as 30, 40, 50 or 60. Age, after all, is only a number. Had she been born in China, Korea, or any one of the other countries that counts age by the Lunar New Year, she would have been 71 since the new year’s celebration. In our culture, however, the actual day of a person’s birth is the day of special birthday recognition and today is that day.

Over the course of her lifetime, there have been several natural disasters that occurred on her birthday. On the day she turned eight we were wakened in the middle of the night by an earthquake. It turned out that we were nearly 60 miles from the epicenter, but it was a big one. The 7.5 Yellowstone Park earthquake, near Hebgen Lake, caused the whole side of a mountain to slide into the river, forming Quake Lake. An entire campground was buried in the slide. Roads were rendered impassible. A decade later, on her 18th birthday, Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.42 billion in damage. On her 48th birthday, the Izmit earthquake in Turkey killed over 17,000 people.

In general, the decade years, when her age ends in a zero, have tended to be a bit more peaceful with fewer natural disasters. Though the death toll continues to mount in the recent Haiti earthquake, the actual day of the temblor was Saturday and not today. It wouldn’t be fair to connect that one with her birthday.

And, as I learned early in life, it isn’t practical to play too many jokes on her on her birthday because it gives her nearly two years to plan her revenge. Whatever age she achieves, I will be the next “kid” in our family to reach that number.

The fact that she is now a septuagenarian doesn’t have much impact on my life except that I will get to use that rather fun word a lot more than I used to. I’ve got about a dozen years before I leave that word behind and after that, I’ll still have brothers for whom the category will apply for a while.

Perhaps most interesting is the simple fact that we’ve become the seniors in our family and in our communities. We’re the little old people, though we haven’t adjusted to thinking about ourselves that way. Although she is contemplating a move, like us, to be nearer to her children, an event made more appealing with the anticipated arrival of a new granddaughter next year, for now she lives in the town where we grew up. She walks the same streets we walked a children, visits some of the same stores, sees the same scenes. I suspect that as she does, like me, she can remember the days when we were children and rode our bikes up and down the street. She can remember when we were the ones squealing with delight as the swimming pool opened on summer days. She can remember sitting in the shade of the cottonwood trees and spitting watermelon seeds on summer evenings.

Time passes and when we look back, it seems like it has passed so very quickly. Seven decades of living have given her a world of experiences. She has graduated from college and graduate school and pursued several different vocational directions. She has seen her children become adults and experienced the death of her parents. She has watched as the elders of the community have taken their places in the cemetery and now has become an elder herself.

So happy birthday, my septuagenarian sister! I hope your day is one of worthy celebration and of contemplation of new adventures to pursue. I hope it is a day of good memories and that the losses and traumas that have shaped you don’t dominate your thoughts today. There are a lot of wonderful memories, fun memories and plenty of funny memories, too.

I promise to be gentle with the teasing this year, though I probably can’t resist bringing up earthquakes and hurricanes. I know that I’m right behind you and a couple of years doesn’t seem like much time at all from the perspective of my age. The older we have become, the closer in age it feels like we are.