2835. Birthday cake © Bruce Goodman 5 September 2023

Ella and Justin Sudworthy had never had to go much without but they could never be termed as “well off”. And now it had all come to a pretty pass. There simply was no money left. They had retired with enough savings for a few years, but they had outlived their expected life span. Now they were retired and broke. Justin’s birthday was coming up. Ella had always baked a cake. It was always a banana cake because in their younger days banana cake had been Justin’s favourite. It had become a tradition. But there were very few pennies in the kitty for the ingredients. Ella decided to bite the bullet; to swallow her pride; to eat humble pie. She would simply go to the neighbours on either side and borrow a bit of flour, a bit of sugar, a spoon of baking powder. She had two over ripe bananas and could use lard instead of butter. The neighbours were very gracious. They all said the same. “Return it? Don’t be silly!” Ella was ready. This was their 53rd birthday together and 53rd banana cake! She assembled all the ingredients on the kitchen bench. With a positive attitude she had conquered the lack of birthday money! The electric company had turned the electricity off. Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story