90 Years Old!

Our friend Vada turned 90 on Friday, and we celebrated with her family last night.

Vada is remarkable. She does her own housework, in a large house, too. She does most of her own yard work and gardening, on more than an acre of land. She swims laps for half an hour, five days a week. A music major in college, she plays piano, organ, and a harpsichord she had custom made. She paints excellent pictures in oil. She reads a lot and is a lively and interesting conversationalist with a first-class intellect unimpaired by the years. The only concession she has made to being 90 is some hardness of hearing.

Her house is like a museum full of artifacts, each with a fascinating history. She has a white linen tablecloth with a Nazi swastika woven into it, and another one with the White Star Lines logo woven in. (That's the cruise line that owned Titanic, although the cloth is obviously not from her.) She has the hat of some famous bishop and letters from relatives written in World War I, and a painting that just may be an undiscovered Corot...and on and on!

She's a loving person, too. When my husband came to America, peniless, she found him his first apartment, paid the deposit on it, and gave him $200 to last until his first payday. That was 12 years or so before I ever met him.

When we became engaged, Vada and her wonderful, late husband Sloan were the very first people we told.

We didn't ask her secret of longevity, but she offered it last night anyway: don't overeat.

Thank you, Vada, for blessing our lives in so many ways for so many years, mostly just by being you!

Thank You, God, for Vada!

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