Forever Young, Part 1

     Over this past Memorial Day weekend Tom and I drove from Columbus, Ohio, to Seaford, Delaware, to visit my mother, who will turn  97 years old in June.
       Though I talk to my mom on a regular basis, it had been almost a year since I'd last seen her and I was wondering how she would look, how she would be, now,

...compared to two years ago,

...or one year ago.

     Here's how my mother  looked when she greeted us upon our arrival last Friday night,

...with  a bowl of fruit salad that she'd made for us, an assortment of cookies  and sweets, and a refrigerator full of snacks and drinks.
    Also there to greet us were my mom's three cats,  strays she's adopted,

...Blacky,

...Hidey, so named  because he likes to hide,

...and Sylvester, a pretty black and white ball of fur who refused to sit still  for a picture.

    As usual, I was amazed at how well my mom was doing, how good she looked, and how cheerful she was.

     Though in truth she's always been a pretty cheerful lady.

     I'd heard from siblings who live closer to my mom than I do that she was refusing to use her walker. 
      But then I saw for myself that she in fact was using her walker,

...to store things in and hang things on.

      "I'm not going to use that old thing,"  said my mom of her walker, "it makes me feel like an old lady and I don't want to feel like an old lady!"
      Can't argue with that.
      Especially when we woke up the following morning to find that my mom,

...looking lovely,

...had fixed us a beautiful breakfast of cheese omelettes, bagels, fruit salad, and sticky buns.

    After breakfast my mom pulled out a box of chocolates.
    Now, candy immediately after breakfast is more than even I, the Sugar Queen, can handle. Tom likewise declined.
    My mom, however, dug in.

      "I really shouldn't eat so much chocolate,"  she said.
         "No, Mom," said I, "you should keep eating exactly what you're eating and doing exactly what you're doing."
    
     

     It occurred to me that maybe we all should start eating chocolate after breakfast.
     In truth, besides the benefits of chocolate, my mother has the benefit of two wonderful ladies who are her tag-team of in-home helpers:

...her dear friend Fran,   

...and Laura, who make it possible for her to continue to  live an active life.

     Every morning either Fran or Laura swings by my mom's house and takes her to Mass.  Afterwards they go for breakfast at McDonald's with my mom's church group, except on Sundays when they go after church to breakfast at a  local restaurant called Pizza King,

...where one can get a great breakfast, and lots of other dishes besides pizza.  Go figure.

     After breakfast  Fran or Laura generally drive my mom to doctor's appointments, shopping trips,  or to run whatever errands need to be run. Then they head home where the ladies take care of whatever house work needs to be done, usually finding time to fit in a game or two of Scrabble with my mom.  My mom's helpers generally leave by mid-afternoon and she's good for the rest of the day and evening, though friends, neighbors, and my brother and his wife often stop by to visit.
     After breakfast and chocolates my mom showed me some pictures from  the Christmas party she hosted last December.

...of the yummy-looking food,

...and my brother Michael with five  of his ten kids.

     Then I spent some wandering around my mother's house, looking at things,

     Among some of my mother's mementos I came across these photos of my father,

...and this local news article from a couple of years ago.

   I asked her about this table set up in her dining room,

...and my mother explained that this is for the weekly meetings of her Legion of Mary group  who, since they lost their former meeting site, now  hold their  meetings at her house.

     Later that afternoon my mother saw her next-door neighbor, one of her many good neighbors who watch out for her, out in his back yard,

...so she walked over to his yard and invited him and his cute poochie to come over for a visit since Tom and I were there.

     At dinner time we we went to eat at my mom's favorite restaurant, the Stargate Diner,

...a homey place,

...family owned,

...with the nicest ambiance,

...and the biggest portions of the best food.

     My mom ordered the salmon stuffed with crab meat,

...while Tom had the sea trout,

...and I had the eggplant parmesan.

     Our meals were ginormous, and came with soup or the salad bar as well.
     During dinner the daughter of the owner walked around the restaurant talking to the guests. 
     "Romaine, why did they seat you here?"  she asked my mother, who is one of the regulars, "I was looking for you in the other room."
     After our delicious and pleasant dinner at the Stargate, we came home,

...and Tom and I went for a walk around my mother's neighbor-
hood.

     When we got back my mom had the desserts ready and waiting.

     To be continued...