Birth Week 1976 Local Landmark #13: Providence St. Peter Hospital, Olympia, WA
Built: 1971.
Far more importantly, where Matthew McQuilkin was born: April 30, 1976.

We went to Providence St. Peter Hospital, the hospital where I was born, and they didn't have a statue of me anywhere, or even a plaque! What a disappointment.

They do have this hospital a footpath cut through the center and leading straight to the hospital's front entrance. We went into the lobby, visited the gift shop which opened just minutes after we arrived, and asked the lady in the lobby if there were any old photos of the hospital around anywhere, and she kept somehow misunderstanding and saying she didn't know of any baby pictures anywhere. We didn't say anything about babies, lady! Anyway, with Barbara's help, I did find this old photo of the hospital from the 1970s online, so probably how it looked when I was born.

Birth Week 2026 50th Birthday Celebration

The same day we stopped by the hospital where I was born, Shobhit and Barbara and I drove down to Olympia for the 50th-birthday party I had scheduled at my parents' house. (I am the youngest of four, and there have now been 50th birthday parties for all four of us.) Before we left, Shobhit finished up the red velvet birthday cake he made for me from scratch but modified a bit from a recipe given to him by my dad's cousin, Valerie. Shobhit's modifications included the addition of cardamom to both the cake batter and the icing; coating the cake with pistachio crumbs; cutting the cake into three layers and spreading raspberry jam in between them; and adding raspberries on top (which he used to spell out "M M' for my initials, then "L" for 50 in Roman Numeral).

Shobhit does not have extensive baking experience, which is different from the stove cooking he's so great at, and Barbara and I both thought he was doing a lot of stuff that seemed odd (adding the cardamom; unnecessarily adding icing to the raspberry jam in between the layers). We were increasingly convinced it was not going to taste quite as good as it could have otherwise. And then? Everyone loved it (including me). So annoying!

To my delight, and even somewhat to my surprise, my brother came over for my party—he lives in Wallace, Idaho, in the house our mom and stepdad used to live in before they passed away. He came with two of my nephews, the two youngest of his five children: Christian (second from the right) and Braeden (center), who are now 23 and 20, respectively. Tristen, the middle child, had to work back at his job in Kellogg, Idaho; and Nikki, the oldest, is coming with her family to the Family Vacation planned in August and her husband could not get more time off work to come to this. But! Becca, the second-oldest, actually happens to live in Olympia currently, so she came—and she can be seen in this shot that I took with the nieces and nephews that were able to make it.

Anyway, the party was scheduled for 2:00 in the afternoon, but Shobhit and Barbara and I arrived at Dad and Sherri's house shortly before 11:30 a.m., and Christopher and the boys were already there. Barbara helped out a lot with party prep still going on in the kitchen, and Shobhit suggested going for a walk, and Christopher and the boys happily came along—we walked over to Mission Creek Nature Park, which is about a half-mile walk from Dad and Sherri's house. The park covers 37 acres and also has trails and boardwalks through it, though, so by the time we walked through it and returned, we had walked about two miles. Side note: this is the park where my dad volunteered many hours over the past several years, removing tons of blackberry bushes, mowing, and doing various other landscaping works. He got a community award for it!

We also discovered the 5th Annual Mushroom Festival at Capitol Vision Church on the way there. This explained why we also seemingly quite randomly saw two people in mushroom costumes walking a couple of blocks ahead of us.

But soon, the party was upon us! Several people I hoped could make it could not, which was a bummer, but we still had 21 in attendance (for a while we thought there were going to be at least 30), and that was still great. And best of all, my dad did a pasta bar! What better way to celebrate my 50th birthday than with six different kinds of carbs? Well, it's my birthday and I'll carb if I want to.

I was very intentional in not asking for much for this birthday, and this birthday party, but I was insistent that I get 50 candles on my birthday cake. Why? As I said in the invite: Because I believe in the truth. Even though, to be perfectly honest, so far being 50 isn't my favorite.

We used the red velvet cake Shobhit baked for the candles, and when Dad had mentioned that some people might not want a slice of cake I had blown all over, we compromised by having two cakes: Dad and Sherri ordered another one from Costco (the rainbow was a nice touch).

Sherri literally brought out the fire extinguisher for when we lit all 50 of these candles. I knew we wouldn't need to use it, though! My mouth was the fire extinguisher.

Soon enough, we had to take the requisite group photos—this was the first time all of my siblings and I were together since Sherri's 70th birthday party, which was four years ago.

As had been the case with Angel's, Gina's, and Christopher's 50th birthday parties (2019, 2021, and 2022), I regarded this as a family birthday party—but, as had also been done at some of the other parties, I invited a few friends. Specifically, the ones I long called "The Untouchables," with whom I have been close friends since I was in school (including college) and with absolute confidence all along that that will never change. The original three said "Untouchables" were Danielle (far left in the above photo; we've known each other since we were both 11—our mothers became friends first, when they met while going back to school themselves); Gabriel (second from the right; we were assigned each other as roommates in college—that's his wife Lea to his left); and Barbara (center; we met at a heinous call center job I did while spending the summers before my Freshman and Sophomore years of college at home in Spokane). It seems worth noting that all three of them have some manner of history with my family: Barbara came to nearly all family holiday gatherings with me the 10 years she lived in Seattle between 2000 and 2010 (thereby becoming a de facto part of the family), and Danielle came to a couple herself after she moved to Seattle in 2000. Gabriel has less connection to family, but the was around them at events such as graduations or weddings over the years. (In the above photo, that just leaves Laney, second from the left, whom I met at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Chorus in 2000, and I'll get to her again momentarily!)

I had taken big group photos with my siblings, my friends, my nephews, and someone was like: "What about cousins!" Jennifer was the only cousin I had at the party, and to give her full acknowledgment in my life, she really did fill the role of "best friend"—we never used that phrase, of course, as we're family—throughout my youth outside of Danielle (the only lasting non-relation close friend I made prior to college). And I thought: well, shit! I should get a photo with Jennifer!

05022026-90 Matthew & Jessica video edit

Okay, now we're back to Laney again! Remember how I said one of the few things I wanted was 50 candles on my birthday cake? Well, although I otherwise insisted I wanted no gifts, I did ask for just one gift from one person: I asked Laney to write me a song.

That was the extent of the mandate, mind you: write—okay, and sing—me a song for my birthday, and perform it at my party. It could be about whatever she wanted, in whatever style she wanted. I had total trust in her: well beyond the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Chorus, which I left in 2004, she has extensive experience with multiple other choruses, and many times over she wrote lyrics to songs performed by these groups. More often than not, they were parodies. Her song for me certainly didn't have to be a parody, but it was also great if it was one. After considering apparently many options, she settled on the 4 Non Blondes hit from 1993 (I turned 17 that year!), "What's Up?" And when it came time for Laney to perform the song at the party, she declared it called "For Matthew: What's Up - with Turning 50?"

Now, I have three versions of video recordings of this song. If you click here, it'll take you to the version Laney's daughter, Jessica, recorded, on YouTube. If you click here, it'll take you to the recording that I did. But! If you click to play the video embedded above, you'll see what I regard as the best version—because I edited the two videos together so it shows the song from multiple, changing angles throughout.

Sherri had to watch the full song on video later because she was inside and did not realize the performance had started, but she did come out before it finished. The song is incredibly sweet, and very funny, and by the end shifts slightly toward a touching sincerity—something Sherri clocked: she put her arm around my shoulders and said, "Are you crying?" I said: "A little bit."

[posted 7:05pm]

P.S. 50th Birthday Party Roll Call!

1. Matthew
2. Shobhit
3. Dad
4. Sherri
5. Gina
6. Beth
7. Christopher
8. Becca
9. Rico
10. Christian
11. Braeden
12. Jennifer
13. Chase
14. Ian
15. Wendy
16. Danielle
17. Gabriel
18. Lea
19. Barbara
20. Laney
21. Jessica

Birth Week 2026, Day Nine: Providence St. Peter Hospital / 50th Birthday Celebration, Olympia

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