“This is 95!”
November 20, 2021
Today is my Mom’s 95th birthday! She does not like any attention or fuss made about her day, and she didn’t want any lawn ornaments, which have become so popular since Covid, announcing her big day. However, 95 is a big deal and while my family tried to keep the fuss to a minimum, we had to celebrate in some fashion! Instead of doing lawn ornaments, we hung 95th birthday banners and streamers inside her house, sang off key, opened presents, and ate cake and ice cream.
My mom was born in 1926. Every time I have to give her year of birth, at a doctor’s visit or a trip to the pharmacy, it reinforces just how long ago my mom was born and how different 1926 is than 2021. Consider some of these facts from the year my mom was born-1926:
Life expectancy was 54.1 years
Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States
A new home cost $7,748
Average annual income was $2,310
Average monthly rent was $20
Tuition to Harvard University was $300 per year
A movie ticket was 20 cents each
Gasoline was 12 cents a gallon
Eggs were 14 cents a dozen
Bread was 9 cents a loaf
Milk was 34 cents a gallon
Ground coffee was 30 cents per pound
My mother has now exceeded the life expectancy of 1926 by 41 years and I am so thankful! I am thankful because she truly is the nicest, kindest, and most affectionate and loving person I know. In all the years that I have known her, she has never been stingy with her verbal affirmations of love, with her nurturing and caregiving of my brothers and me, with her husband, or with her kisses (just ask the grandchildren and great- grandchildren about GG’s kisses).
While her limitations increase with age, she still remains eager to love her family, especially my Dad, and she is still eager to help me, help them. She wishes she could still cook and clean, and prepare meals, but she cannot. Even so, I tease her and my dad every night about it being their turn to do the dishes.
When my mom’s children’s children speak of her, they use words like, ‘amazing’, ‘loving’, ‘the best’. They use phrases such as, “I hope to be half the wife and mother she has shown us to be over the years.” And just by way of mentioning, never do I have to arm wrestle with anyone about having the best Mom in all the world!
Happy Birthday, Mom! As we always say to each other, “I love you and I love you more!”
“27She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. 28Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.”—Proverbs 31:27-28