A wrapup:
My grandma’s 90th birthday was a big success! She loved the album my parents and I put together for her:
And she blew out all her candles:
And a lot of extended family (including a niece, grand-niece, and great-grandniece) came in from Texas and Florida and Ohio. …
Then my parents, my aunts, uncle and Grandma all took off for Vegas the next day, where they met with even more family from Texas and Washington, D.C. and gambled together for days! (I, unfortunately, didn’t get to go to Vegas, but I heard it was fun!)
At the birthday party, I was struck (as I was with my other grandma, when we celebrated her 100th birthday!) with what wonderful and full lives these women have lived — through the depression, through WWII, in their little houses with their large families. I loved looking at the old pictures of them, with their kids and family gatherings, drinking punch in the living room with loads of cousins, or (in Grandma H’s case) camping and catching fish in kerchiefs with sisters, and laughing in all the pictures.
It’s the simplicity of their lives (and sometimes difficulty of their lives), combined with that joy, that always gets me.
It reminds me what a full life really looks like.
This was just beautiful. Often when I’m reading books that take place back in the 1930-1950’s period I think about how things were much simpler then. Somehow they managed to get by with a fraction of what we have today, yet, as a society, we think we need more. My kids are horrified at the thought that they didn’t have cell phones when I was a teen. Sad.
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That is awesome! I love your last line…the simplicity and sometimes the difficulty of their lives…That seems so true. I can’t imagine how they did laundry or even made dinners without all the fancy machines and stuff that we have now. We are definately spoiled with all the technology today. They really did make their own joy back then, didn’t they. Without tvs and fancy cars to take them places – the large family was their entertainment, wasn’t it! I wonder what it will look like for us if we get to live 90 – 100 yrs! Happy Birthday Gma!!
Your grandma looks great! You’ve got good genes in you, Laurie.
A very special occasion! She looks wonderful, and I can imagine how much she loved getting the album, Laurie. Our older relatives are such an inspiration. I have a 92 year old great aunt, and I hope to get up to Northern California some time this year for another good visit,