Leap Day birthday cause for celebration for North Las Vegas ‘teen’

Call it “The Mystery of the Missing Birthday,” with a young Nancy Brown as famed literary detective Nancy Drew.

“When I was a kid, I always used to look for my birthday on the calendar and it was not there, and I was, like, ‘What’s going on?’ ” Brown says. “I just kept asking my mom, ‘Why don’t I see my birthday on the calendar year after year?’ I’m like, ‘Something’s going on here. I had to have a birthday.’ ”

Brown was born on Feb. 29 — that quirk of the calendar known as leap day. Since then, she has embraced leap year and, especially, her leap year birthdays. While she celebrates every year, it’s those years when her real birthday rolls around that Brown takes festivities up a notch.

Brown was born on Feb. 29, 1960, which she figures will make her either 60 or 15 years old on Saturday. She accepts the former but jokingly prefers the latter.

After learning about her missing birthday as a kid, Brown adopted Feb. 28 as her non-birthday birthday because, she figured, “I’ve got to have a birthday.”

Why not March 1? “I wasn’t going to go beyond February,” she says, and besides, “it just took too long to get there.”

Actually, Brown doesn’t remember any of her childhood birthdays as being any big deal. But, during her 20s — “when I got old enough to do something and make something happen on that day” — she embraced her Feb. 29 leap year birthday.

“When it showed up, I was really excited,” she says. “That’s my day.”

It feels more real, somehow, to celebrate her birthday on her actual birthday, Brown says, while celebrating on the 28th feels like fibbing because “it’s not true and it’s not really my birthday.”

Besides, Brown says, “it only comes around every four years and you really have to enjoy that moment.”

Brown, who has worked in the Tropicana’s culinary department for 33 years, recalls that time when, in a celebration of employees who have February birthdays, she saw hers — and her beloved “Feb. 29” — inadvertently omitted.

Brown picked up a phone and, she says, laughing, “they added my name to that board.”

Brown — an upbeat, outgoing woman who could find reason to celebrate just about anything — celebrates her off-year birthdays simply. During leap years, she goes bigger. This year, that means a 10-day California trip.

Having a leap day birthday is special, like having a birthday on, say, Christmas, Brown says. “Now that I’m older, I’m so excited. I feel like a kid in a candy store.”

Having a special birthday every four years even “makes me feel younger than I am,” she adds.

“I’m 15,” Brown says, laughing. “Maybe that’s keeping me younger.”

Contact John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.