A 3M Day - Maude, Michael, and Mary

An excellent day ...

I went with Willyne to visit Jacob, Hilary, and Maude for an hour at mid-day today, while there I got to hold Maude and enjoy her for a full half hour.  We had a great time together!  I also have 2 wonderful pictures that don't seem to want to upload here, I'll try again a little later ...



Today is my brother Michael's birthday, his 49th.  If you don't know him, that's because he was born premature and quite small.  He lived several hours and died later on the day he was born.  Willyne and my mother met me at his grave where we talked and enjoyed thinking about him for a little while near the end of the afternoon at 5:30. 


It is also my cousin Greg's birthday and my grandmother Mary's birthday.  I had the special treat of growing up with 3 grandmothers, each of whom was very kind to me.  Emelia, known to me as "Bon", is my mother's mother; Edna was my grandfather Beecher's second wife (she is 97 and still going strong living in her home in Milwaukie, Oregon, near Portland - I last saw her 4 years ago on my most recent trip to the Pacific Northwest), and Mary is my father's mother.

Mary was born January 24, 1901 in Willard, Utah, so she would be 110 today.  She lived to be 93 and is buried in the Willard City Cemetery, just off I-15 a few miles south of Brigham City.  She loved her crossword puzzles, and did them better than anyone I've ever known.  She had a large, well-worn dictionary that she had used so much to solve her crosswords that you couldn't close the book, it sat permanently open in her small kitchen.  One Christmas we gave her a new one, but we learned there was nothing quite like her original one where she knew where everything was. 

She also had a wonderful skill for cooking in cast iron pots and pans on her coal burning stove.  It was especially good for cooking fried eggs and macaroni and cheese. 

I'd like to post a picture of her here and thought I had one, but I'm not finding it at the moment.  Sorry.

Changing subjects, the tortoise walked today after having Sabbath rest yesterday.  Read more about it at:  http://terreeeblay.blogspot.com/2011/01/19.html