What A Difference A Day Makes

Marie has had the same hearing aide for ten years. During those years her ability to hear has decreased. She and I just live less a block away from each other, but I cannot call her on the phone. I always needed to walk to her house to talk to her. I also want to add, I had to either yell at her or talk very loudly. Sometimes I had to write her notes.
One day she was here for a family dinner and could not hear at all because she had forgotten to put batteries in her hearing aide.
I did a little digging around and found that there was actually a man that would come to our little town twice a month. I found that he would go to the senior center and test hearing aides. I think we all were hoping that hers could be repaired. We took her to see this young man. He was very nice. He did a lot of testing and kind of shook his head. Marie realized at that moment that her hearing aide was shot. Medicare does not pay for hearing aides, so this was something that needed to be paid for.
She settled on a digital hearing aide. This type should allow her to talk on the telephone. She was not able to talk to her family before.
She has been waiting for almost a month for it to arrive. Yesterday was the day. I was not convinced it was worth the money. She kept saying “what?” Then I thought it could have been habit, but I still wasn’t convinced.

When we got her home I told her to sit by the table because I was going to call her. I did that and she said, “ You’re talking too loud, I have to hold it a foot away from my ear!
We both laughed, in fact I almost cried I was so happy. Now everyone can call her all the time. Just remember, let it ring several times because it takes her awhile to get to the phone.

Then There Was THE Party!!!

The first birthday party Marie can remember is her seventeenth birthday. She had aunts and uncles and cousins attend. Her birthday presents were yards of material so she could make herself some dresses. Marie was an excellent seamstress, so everyone knew that the yard goods would be very much appreciated. However, not too exciting.
This year the company and the gifts were very different. Some of her grandchildren and friends and son from Texas came to visit for a couple of days. This kind of thing happens when you turn 95. There was a big supper at her son’s of brisket, salads, and fruit.
The next day a birthday party complete with decorated cake and ice cream was served. The whole group sang happy birthday to Marie and the flashbulbs lit up the room. She has a fun sense of humor and said, “Cheese” every once in awhile.

She had beautiful gift bags full of gifts including linens, pots and pans, bird feeders and personal items. I think one of  her favorite gifts was from her grandchildren. That was frames of pictures of them wearing hats that Marie had made from plastic bags, pictures of them surrounding her, and pictures of her and two of her children.
Marie loves to reminisce and tell stories from the past. The stories she tells are inspiring to everyone who listens.
Actually her stories are history lessons from the early nineteen hundreds to World War Two to the present day. Marie holds audience with young and old with her stories; most are fascinated.
When Marie is tickled, she has a fun little giggle that is very infectious. Most everyone laughs with her.
I hope you enjoy the pictures of Marie and her family and friends on a very special day for her.
If you would like to take a look at more pictures and posting click on Lu's Place
mrsfrenchie1.blogspot.com just across the street. We enjoy having you visit.

Green Stripes On Uniforms

One day Marie was at our house visiting. Fran was in the living room watching television, and Marie and I were out in the kitchen visiting. She was telling stories and I was laughing.

I asked her for a new story, well you could just see her eyes sparkle. She has the most fantastic memory so she pretty much knows what she has told me. Then she smiled. She told me that Fran played baseball when he was about thirteen years old. One day the city painted the bleachers green. They did not tell the people that came to watch the game that the bleachers were still wet.  Well....the moral to this story is don't sit on really shiny bleachers without testing them with your finger.

Marie said that her telephone rang off the hook with people trying to get green paint stripes off their clothes and the boy's white uniforms.  I guess they thought if anyone could help them get the paint out, she could.

The Value Of The Gift

We exchanged gifts with Marie and Rolland on Christmas Eve afternoon when we finished with lunch. I didn’t even do dishes, surprise, surprise.

True to form, Marie made me a beautiful afghan. It was lovely with pink raised roses on a bed of white and blue. It will be a heirloom for me.
I bought, the optimum word is bought, her a beautiful turquoise velour outfit that goes beautifully with her white hair. Fran got her some jewelry. While she was unwrapping and inspecting her gifts she was very quiet. I was watching from across the room and went to her. I told her that one of her friends just loved the soft velour outfits and had three of them. She told me she had a closet full of clothes. (sigh)
Her last gift was thick and misshapen.. She felt of it and ripped the paper away, and said, “Now THAT I like!"
That gift cost a whole three dollars and in return I got a million dollar smile. One just never knows.

Maries Stories Are Fun

Marie was at our house for Christmas Eve lunch this year. We changed our Christmas lunch for several different reasons, but she was fine with it.
While we were eating I asked her to tell us stories of Christmas while she was a child. Oh, anyone that knows Marie, she was more than willing to tell stories.
One story was of Marie as a very small child going hunting with her father for the Christmas turkey. It was very cold, of course, because they lived in Massachusetts . The got two very big turkeys for dinner. They had a very large family therefore, it took two big birds.
I asked Marie if they had homemade gifts at Christmas time and she said that they did if they even had money for them.
As she got older and had children she had her children, boys also, knit caps and mittens for children that had none. She told the numbers and it was astronomical, but I forgot to write it down. She and the children worked and worked to have as many caps and mittens as they could to have gifts for the children.
She told many stories that day, but she veered off the Christmas stories. There will be more stories, more days
By the way she made this lovely Christmas Afghan herself.
I have no idea who has it now. One day it was just gone. The things that she made were most often given to her guests. Friends as well as family. Her family seldom ever left without something that she had made.

The Aubin Family

 Today I went to Marie’s house to visit. She was so excited she had gotten a picture of her whole family in the mail. The youngest child was Lucy; she was three months old. The youngest brother, Charlie was the blonde little boy sitting on the ground. Marie said this picture was taken in 1931. She was so excited I got tickled at her. She said, “Make sure you put this on the internet.”  And of course, I told her that I would.
I am going to name the children from left to right: Hector, Tony Bob, Lucy, Marie, Teresa, George, Jean, Joe, Pauline, and like I said, Charlie sitting on the ground.
I think they were a good looking crew.

She Forgot My Birthday

I was thinking this morning that it has been awhile since I posted something about Marie, Fran's mother. I have said she is amazing, I have said that her memory is also amazing. She is ninety-four. She knows her grandchildren's names and birthdays. She is also a great grandmother. She is going to be expecting a great great grandchild I think in January. See, I say 'I think" I know if I ran down to her house she would tell me exactly when Liz was due.

Well, Marie crocheted an afghan and two hoodies for the new baby. Here is a picture of Lizan opening up the afghan. I believe she has a rosary in her hand.

I do have something a little amusing to tell you. She was so upset a few weeks ago. She told Fran that she had forgotten my birthday. Can you imagine?