I have often thought that the most precious gift my parents passed on to me was not a physical thing, but their love for music. They were not musicians, but they often had the record player or they had the radio. My mother loved musicals and jazz, but also enjoyed some of the music my sisters and I enjoyed. Music has become, for me, a way to express who I am and my deep sense of spirituality in a way…
1. It’s so fun to be in a group and not have everyone looking down, and they’re talking to each other. 2. I’m so grateful that we’ve had this time together because we’ve been singing together for quite a while, and singing, we’re at our best a lot of the times. It’s just such a great bonding that we have, singing together, and now we get to know each other on a more intimate basis by having these little times…
I feel like humanity is just so beautiful when you take time to actually just listen to people talk about the most important things. Life seems like a really rich experience even if it’s been hard. It seems also more amusing—that perspective I appreciated in this group too. The beautiful thing about aging is that if you think about it, looking back, all of the things that were hard or that you were sad about—it was your own creation, you…
I’m looking forward to February 22, 2023 because then I will be 88, and I love elevens. 88, 77, 66, 55, all the way down. They’re the best. [My daughter is about to turn 11; she’s looking forward to it as well.] Although, my great aunt, when I was visiting her in California, once said to me that there’s nothing wrong with me but 88-ness. So that gives me another thing to think about. [You could make up a…
I think of it as an honor to have worked for this particular person. He was interesting because he was well-read and very knowledgeable and he liked to talk. We always kind of joked around—not with him—but between ourselves. He was the kind of guy you would stick in a nickel and get a dollar’s worth back. You just couldn’t shut him off, he would go and go. I later learned he had a photographic memory, and he could just…
A person who was very important to me was my Sunday school teacher. She—it was an older woman—she was so spiritual. I don’t think I’ve ever known a woman that was more spiritual. It was in a little country church, and so the class was not divided age-wise so much, it was a pretty wide range of ages. We just all held her in the highest regard. She knew her Bible. [And you didn’t listen, did you?] Of course I…
I really liked when I was five—four, five, and six. When I was younger, I was really really wondering what it would be like to be older. I still wonder about that. [One day you’ll find out, so enjoy every day you have now.] I’m really curious–are you kids looking forward to being older, or is now the best, most fun time? Do you have an age you want to be?] Well, I don’t know. Now that we’re in junior…
Well, I graduated in 1949, and some of my friends had gone to college, and a lot of them were getting married, and I was working in a store. I decided I’d go in the Navy because I couldn’t afford to go to college, but if I went into the Navy I would be able to go to college. I had a fantastic time in the Navy. I fell in love with dancing. I did my job during the day,…
My mother was the singer in our family. She had a lovely, lovely soprano voice. She could just get those high notes light as a feather. She’d sing in church and for funerals. As a little kid, I sang too. I sang outside, it was a farm so animals, maybe cows, heard me, whatever. There was a windbreak; it was a grove of pines that my grandfather had planted to save us from the northerly wind. I would go out…
May 21, 2015, 8:49 a.m. I got this text. I had the worst case of poison ivy I ever had in my life. I was all broke out, just nasty, and I’m sitting at home, sitting in my recliner, can’t move or do anything, just let it ooze and heal and do what it can do. In that moment I thought, you know, I need to get people praying for me. So I started sending emails and text messages out…