Happy Birthday! This is your Vice President calling.

I will never forget the morning of January 18, 2013, partly because it was my birthday. I remember being woken up VERY early that day when the phone rang at about 5:30 am.

I remember it was early enough that I thought about letting it go to voicemail. But it was my birthday, after all and like every year, my mother likes to be the first one to wish me a happy birthday.

I was right. When I picked up I heard my mom say, “Hi. hang on.”

Before I could ask her why, I heard a man’s voice say,

“Happy Birthday, child. This is your Vice President Joe Biden calling to wish you a Happy Birthday.”

My mind said, “I’m sorry, what?” Thankfully, my mouth was speechless.

He continued,

“Your mother says it’s your birthday. So I asked her to give you a call. Do you have any special plans to celebrate?”

I didn’t, but how do you say that to the Vice President of the United States. I mumbled something about seeing a movie. It sounded trivial. He finished by telling me to make it a great day.

If you knew me then, you’ve probably heard the story, but for those in the back.

My mother was attending the inauguration breakfast — In DC — for President Obama’s second term, as a representative for her company. It happened to fall on my birthday, so my mother cooked up a plan to take a picture with the Veep holding a napkin she had scribbled the words, “Happy Birthday Diana” to send me later. (If you knew my mom, you know she had no problem making this ridiculous ask on this momentous occasion.)

And if you know Joe at all, you know what he did next.

“It’s your daughters birthday? Get her on the phone.”

She did, and you just read the rest.

AND she still got the picture!

I’ll be honest, that day was surreal, a day I’ll be telling my grandkids about. You heard it hear first.

I can’t wait for January 20, 2021, when we install Joe Biden as our 46th President of the United States. I can have hope for our future with a leader like him.