99 Years Young, Part 1

7/2/2019

During my recent trip to Seaford, Delaware over Memorial Day weekend to visit my mother (see post from 6/11/2019, "Portraits Of My Mother And Other Subjects) I heard not a word of any parties being thrown in honor of her approaching 99th birthday on June 24.
     Nor was I expecting to. After all, it had been nine years since my mother's last birthday party, when she invited 200 of her closest friends - I'm serious - to a big bash we threw for her in the Seaford fire station hall.
     But now she was nine years older and, really, how many people would want or could even handle a big party for their 99th birthday?
       As it turned out, at least one.

I knew my brother and sister-in-law had been planning to take my mom and two of her friends out to dinner at a nice restaurant for her birthday.
I'm not sure how my sister-in-law, devoted daughter-in-law that she is, managed - after scrapping the nice birthday dinner idea - to whisk together the planning and details, but one week before her birthday I learned from my mother that there was to be not one, but two parties in honor of her 99th birthday: One for her friends to be held in Our Lady of Lourdes church hall on the morning of her birthday after mass, which my mother attends daily;

...and one for her family to be held in the evening at the Stargate Diner in Seaford, where my mom is a regular,

...and a favorite of the friendly family that owns and operates the restaurant.

       "I sure wish you could be here for my birthday," said my mother after telling me the news about her parties that would take place the following week.
        Tom and I had just made the 10-hour drive from Columbus to Seaford three weeks earlier.
         But how do you deny your 99-year-old mother when she asks you to come for her birthday?
         So on Friday, June 21, Tom and I were on the road again to Seaford, Delaware.
When we arrived my mother was, as always, so glad to see us and, as always, she looked wonderful,

...and her cats looked as chill as ever.

Blacky,

...Funny Face,

...Hidey,

...and the neighbor's cat, who just likes to hang out with the other cats.

We spent an enjoyable weekend sampling the cuisine of the Seaford diner scene,

...shopping,

...and hanging.

    On a few occasions while we were out and about we ran into folks that my mother knew and she shared that Tom and I were in town for her 100th birthday.
     At one point I reminded her that it was her 99th birthday.
     "Oh, well," she replied, "I figure this one will be as close to 100 as I'll get, so I'm calling it my 100th."
        Fair enough, thought I.
      On the morning of June 24th, my mother's 99th - or 100th - birthday, some of my mom's church friends, my sister-in-law Theresa, and myself set up the church hall while my mother attended 9:00 am mass in the church.