Thursday, July 19, 2012

Going to Amerika for Happy Birthday


This week, I told my housekeeper about the upcoming trip sweetie pie and I are planning to our homeland. I told her part of the reason we were going is because my honey's mother is celebrating her 90th birthday!

Her eyes lit-up and she clapped her hands and said "Going to Amerika for Happy Birthday?" She thought it was absolutely delightful that we are going to celebrate a birthday with my mother-in-law. She got even more excited when I told her that she is turning 90. I then got the story of how her father, who lives in Jojakarta located in central Java, is 88 and calls her frequently asking her to come and visit. Unfortunately, it is a 12 hour bus ride so visits are few. She said he likes to sit around and smoke clove cigarettes all the time.

Our trip is a bit of an early celebration of this upcoming birthday, but when you get to 90, I think you should celebrate it as early, and as often as you would like.

My mother-in-law is an interesting person. She has traveled many places all over the world, she reads a wide variety of books, paints and played tennis until she was about 80. She and my father-in-law gave me one of my all-time favorite Christmas gifts many years ago. A wonderful Bessler photographic enlarger that I used faithfully to make my own black and white prints. It is waiting for me in storage in "Amerika" and I look forward to setting it back up and resuming my photographic printing one day.

One thing my mother-in-law has always done, is sing a lot. From the time sugar lips and I met and started dating, I remember her singing little bits of tunes. I have to say that I don't think I have ever heard her sing an entire song. But it seems to have always brought her a lot of pleasure to sing aloud whatever snippet was running through her head. Rock on granny!

She served in the Navy as a WAVE and did physical therapy with wounded soldiers returning from World War II. In fact she out ranked her future husband, and father to my honey. This was always a source of amusement.

She taught school for many, many years. History and Earth Science. High School and Junior High (or middle school as it would be called today). That had to be a tough assignment.

These days, she paints and gardens and enjoys life at a more leisurely pace.

But the thing that I appreciate most, is that she helped produced my sweet husband. I hope one day, someone will be as appreciative of my sweet son as I am of hers.

So, it is off to Amerika for Happy Birthday soon. As they say in Bahasa Indonesian Selamat Ulang Tahun - Congratulations for the repeat of another year!

We wish for you pleasant thoughts as you reflect over 90 years of life. I hope your pluses are greater than your minuses. Your joys greater than your sorrows. Most of your dreams fulfilled. A sense of contentment for the life you have lived, and the contributions you have made. And lastly, an excitement for more birthdays to come and more memories to make.

Happy Birthday!