A Celebratory Weekend!

Well, she did it! My mother in law made it to 100 years of age! Incredible!

Here she is with her living children. She lost two sons in West Africa, when their family served there for 23 years. Tim is her baby.

Here is all the family that were able to make her birthday. We gathered on Saturday (the day before her birthday) to spend time together.

Some of the family are in Tennessee, Alaska, Burkina Faso, and Pennsylvania. Jean grew up in Canada, and most of her side of the family is still there.

One of my nieces had a banner made for her and we hung it on her fence!

On Sunday we had a drop in for her from 3:00 - 5:00 pm and the house was full of people who love and care about her. Her bible study ladies, a young man whose family had served in West Africa with them, long time members of the mission agency she served with. When you are 100 years old, most of your peers are already gone.

My mother in law has out lived two husbands (she had two 30 year marriages), her two brothers, her parents, two of her children, and lots of dear friends. We used to tease that she was going to out live us all!

Kamryn, our oldest granddaughter was able to go with us, and she had fun.

Here she is buckled up and comfy in the van headed to Florida.

On Monday, I did a bit of school work with her then Tim and our friend Rick took her to the beach. (We stayed at our friends' house. They are so great. They even hosted Rachel and Wes who flew down for the weekend.)

These beach photos were taken on November 1st. It was a lovely day in Florida.

While they did that Jane and I went into town to get a latte and visit for a while.

Rick and Jane are long time friends, and know the family well. They came over Saturday night and took our family photos for us.

Here is a video of them enjoying Tim's favorite fruitcake - the ones made by his sister Virginia!

I am so glad that a party was planned for Jean. She was in and out of it, at times (she has short term memory dementia) but she lit up with her bible study ladies even saying "Hi Cindy" to one of them!

She is very thin, she gets good nutrition but doesn't eat a lot and she sleeps most of the time. When Kamryn hugged her goodbye, she patted Kam's back. Very sweet.

It was good to be together as family to celebrate her life. She's a remarkable woman. We must remember to honor our elderly, to teach our children and grandchildren that these dear ones have lived full and active lives before they aged. They did ordinary and extraordinary things.

I hope you've all been well. 

November is here. We had a hard frost last night. The mild October days are gone. I'm thankful for everyone of them, and now onto Thanksgiving and Christmas!