Granny's B'Day

    

4 Generations - Christmas 1990

     Today, April 6, 2020 is my grandmother’s 117^th birthday! My mother’s mother, Granny lived all but four years of the twentieth century, and of course I so wish I had asked her more questions, written down more of her stories!

       In 1973, when my grandmother was turning 70, I was a college sophomore and living with her. One day the week before the milestone birthday, I was walking across the Sears parking lot between classes (the Sears parking ramp was the portal back then between the main campus and the health science building. I believe Canisius now owns both the ramp and old Sears building) when I ran into a friend. We stopped and chatted. He was a year ahead of me and lived in the dorms. The only time we usually ever saw each other was at the weekly TGIFs, and then our conversations were usually a beer-mingled hoot.

Mom and Granny 1978

       Well this day in the parking lot, as we talked, he happened to ask if I was going to the John Sebastian concert that the school was sponsoring a week from Saturday? Before it sank in to my thick skull that he was asking me out, I said, “No, I won’t be going to the concert because I’m hosting a 70^th birthday party for my grandmother that night. Just a small gathering with family and cake.” I don’t know how long I chattered on. The young man did not react like he had just been turned down for a date with what must have sounded like the lamest excuse ever. But then again, in all of our subsequent TGIF conversations, he never suggested maybe going out sometime ever again.

       When I finally realized I had missed out on a date with this guy because of Granny’s birthday, I chalked it up to fate, and I’ve enjoyed the irony ever since.

9 great grandchildren by 1997

       Life was much different but equally celebratory twelve years later. On Granny’s 82^nd birthday, a Saturday, her grandchildren all stopped by at the same time in the afternoon to visit. And a great-grandchild was there as well! Sarah was 9-months old. We plunked her down in the middle of the living room floor and we sat and stared while Sarah entertained us all! Fewer words were never spoken by us. And yet Granny was oh so tickled!

       Granny’s great-grandchildren eventually totaled 10, and today there are three great-great-grandchildren. They might never grasp to whom they owe so much of their great greatness. But her 117^th birthday is today!

20200406 48 Granny’s B’day