Grandmotherʼs Birthday
My grandmother turned 85 in December, so my aunt Kay decided that she needed a birthday celebration befitting 85 well-lived years. She arranged for an organ recital at the First United Methodist Church in New Braunfels to be performed by her own church organist who is, as we all recently learned for ourselves, supremely talented. The celebration was last weekend — Iʼm just slow in getting this posted. We all gathered in New Braunfels for the festivities: family dinner on Saturday night at Montana Mikeʼs restaurant, birthday cake for Grandmother (and everyone else who had a birthday in the December–January period) at my parentsʼ house, organ recital on Sunday afternoon at the Methodist Church, and another family dinner after the recital.
My uncle Jim and his family flew in from California, my aunt Carol and her family came from Arlington, and of course, my dad and mom were there, too. Itʼs very rare that Grandmother has all four of her children together at the same time, so this was a very special treat for her!
The organ recital was fantastic. I usually think the organ is kind of a boring and dreary instrument, but the organist was so good that we all were wide awake the whole time. She played the famous Toccata and Fugue of B-movie horror flick fame, along with the Navy hymn, in honor of all the Navy men in the family, and good old church hymns.
The other special part of the day is that Aunt Kay arranged for everyone to write a letter to Grandmother, and she collected all of those letters into a scrapbook, along with pictures. It looked like quite the production, and Grandmother should enjoy reading through it again and again.
And here are a few pictures. Hereʼs Grandmother holding up her scrapbook. The little girl on the cover is her at a very young age.
Hereʼs Grandmother with her four children: Jim, Terry (my dad), Carol, and Kay.
And hereʼs a picture of me and William with Grandmother.
We love you so much!