Birthday Candles

Over the course of a single evening, Ernestine Ashworth bakes the same birthday cake, again and again, as she grows from age seventeen to one hundred and one. The flames of love ignite, marriages form and dissolve. Children arrive, and spin away towards their own destiny. Loss visits, as it always does. Joy returns, as it always does. The more candles on the cake, the more dazzling the light.