Blog 3902 –  07.30.2026

Happy Birthday, Linda!

The best birthday present that I ever gave my wife Linda was a baby boy named Jonathan. Today’s picture is of Linda and Baby J taken shortly after his first birthday and just before her fortieth, thirty-six years ago. They are wearing tee shirts that I hand lettered for the Cancer Survivor’s Day celebration that we attend that day.

Linda had survived breast cancer, the loss of her left breast, and reconstructive breast surgery three years prior to the photo. She had refused to believe her cancer doctor’s further prognosis that she would never be able to conceive and carry a baby. 

Defying the doctor’s predictions Linda was the happiest pregnant lady that I ever saw. In a picture at a friend’s daughter’s birthday party just before Jay was born, Linda is wearing her preggo bib overalls and the biggest smile while her clown of a husband is totally mesmerized by her radiance.

Here is Linda in another of her happiest moments holding our granddaughter, Baby  Emma who will turn three next week.

The last four birthdays have been tough for Linda as she has been battling negative voices that she alone can hear. In spite of those voices she still has a few truly happy moments most days. I hope today, Linda’s seventy-sixth birthday, is a good day for her and that those lying voices are still or drowned completely out by a louder chorus singing “Happy Birthday, Linda!

Your friend, fellow traveler, and once upon a birthday Dee Jay the Clown,

David James White