October 9--Two flights of stairs at 93

Anne writes: When I hugged Mom as she emerged from her room this morning and said “Happy birthday!” she grinned and responded, “Oh for crying out loud, it is my birthday, isn´t it.” I repeated at least 15 times in the course of the next few hours (interspersed with even more frequent updates on the time) that my cousin Cindy would come to her apartment and that we would all go together to Green Lea Gulf Course for lunch. Lunch with Cindy was the highlight of our day. What a joy to be in the company of two such classy women and share with Cindy our love and honor of Hazel Wittman Kepple. As Cindy drove on up to her urban cabin in Minneapolis, Mom and I went for a drive to Myre-Big Island Park to absorb the fall.     

Once back at the apartment, the repeated questions turned to our evening plans to go to the ACT play in the evening. All went smoothly – once in the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center, Mom preferred the stairs to the elevator, so at the age of 93, she ascended two flights of stairs, and then descended another flight to get down to our third row seats. Following the play without being able to see it was understandably almost impossible, and the idea of middle-to-older aged women posing nude for a church calendar was hard for her to grasp, so as we left afterwards, Mom characterized it as one of the least good plays she had seen. Oh well. The German chocolate cake when we arrived home was a hit, however.