TODAY IS MY FATHER'S NINTIETH BIRTHDAY...

...Or would have been if he were still alive.

My mother comments on how the family would have held a big party this weekend. But the earth is in the midst of a pandemic!

I've been thinking recently of my actions should I ever reach the proverbial pinnacle of my life.

Shades of Bilbo Baggins' one hundred eleventh birthday party:

Thirdly and finally, he said, I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT. He spoke this last word so loudly and suddenly that everyone sat up who still could. I regret to announce that — though, as I said, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to spend among you — this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE!

And with that Baggins touched the "Precious" ring in his pocket and subsequently disappeared from view!

He stepped down and vanished. There was a blinding flash of light, and the guests all blinked. When they opened their eyes Bilbo was nowhere to be seen....

[Bilbo] was never seen by any hobbit in Hobbiton again.

Hmm..that's not how my father ended his existence. He died in his bed at age fifty-eight; the cause of death was complications of carcinoma (cancer) of the sigmoid colon.