
No One from Her Family Showed up for Our Café Older Regular’s Birthday—But I Tried to Fix It
Miss Helen sat at a big round table by the window, her birthday decorations bright and cheerful but lonely. The table was covered with pink streamers and a box of cake that hadn’t been opened yet. A tiny vase held fake daisies. The decorations were old, like they’d been waiting a long time for something that never came. And Miss Helen, well, she was sitting there all by herself. I walked into the café like I did every morning—keys in one hand, apron in the other. The smell of fresh