The Birthday Dinner

I will never forget my daughter's 9th birthday. It will haunt my memories for the rest of my life, I am sure. It was a good day. I picked the kids up from camp and we were having my sister and her family and my dad over to have dinner and cake and presents. My daughter wanted an Italian dinner so I fixed pasta, chicken parm and garlic bread. The family showed up and I began serving everyone.

My husband and I were tag teaming. I was fixing the plates and he was serving the kids. I cut the chicken into chunks and asked him to serve the birthday girl. He did and came back into the kitchen. A few minutes later we heard a gagging like vomiting and we ran into the dining room and my 9 year old was choking. My husband got behind her and did the Heimlich and some vomit started to come up. She composed herself for a moment but began to gag again. She was choking and could not get air. My husband was trying to get it up and it wasn't coming out and she was struggling. She looked up at me and I could see the fear in her eyes. My blood turned cold and I could feel my heart drop to the floor and I had never been so afraid in my whole life. "Do it again, HARD!" One hard, swift thrust up and this huge piece of chicken came flying out of her mouth. She let out a huge gasp and it felt like all the air had left the room. We were all silent. She was trembling like a leaf. This all conspired in 30 seconds but those 30 seconds seemed like an eternity. I asked my husband to start a shower for her to clean up and went to the sink to dispose of the offending chicken and vomit on my hands and forearms and then followed them upstairs.

I knocked on the shower door and peeked my head in. "How are you feeling, honey?" She looked up at me and said, "I was really scared, mom." "Me too. Hurry up, you have presents to open." I shut the bathroom door and sat on the edge of the bed and I sobbed. My husband asked, "Are you okay?" "No." I wasn't. It could have been really bad, I never want to see that look in her eyes ever again as long as I live. It was terrifying.

My daughter stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. I motioned for her to come to me and she did and I hugged her and I just held her like that for a long time. She let me. She got dressed and we walked back down together. "Mom, can I finish my dinner? Except I don't want anymore chicken." "Sounds like a plan - just make sure you chew your food, okay"

Later, I watched my life saving husband carry in the birthday cake and my daughter blow out her candles and in that moment, I felt very lucky.