Happy Birthday Mama!

Today, my grandmother and Lilly's great-grandmother is 92 years young! When I was growing up we called her "Grandmother" but Lilly and the other 4 great granddaughters call her "Mama" pronounced Mah-Maw not Momma. It is the same name I called my great-grandmother. And if you don't know my grandmother (and who doesn't!?) she is a hoot! She is full of life and energy - still driving all around town when gas is affordable, caring for the elderly (hee hee it's true), in better shape than I am in, and totally open-minded and the glue that holds our family together.

I will share a memory or two...

My mom was in the hospital recovering from breast cancer surgery. I was a crazy wild teen driving too fast (but it was down a hill and I wasn't even accelerating) and got pulled over by Johnny Law himself. I told a white lie that I was headed to see my very sick mom, etc. The nasty cop made me give him the info of where my mom was though I told him not to call (smart of me, eh?). When I eventually did get to the hospital that night I grabbed my grandmother and confessed my sins. She was totally cool with it telling me not to worry and never judging me. You know what? That cop ended up calling the damn hospital right into my mom's room! But it backfired because my dad gave him an earful and I was off scotch clean!

Another time my girlfriend (total bad influence Caitlyn) and I were living in Richmond City in a really ridiculous and unsafe arrangement when we suddenly had to pack all of our stuff at 2am. How were we to know our roommate had been doing cocaine for free and decided to end it? I wondered who the old man was that was watching our apartment for days. Anyway, we had to get out of there (think Soprano's - going after family members when you are a dealer and don't get your money) and had no place to go. Caitlyn had a puppy and I had a cat (or two can't remember). So we borrowed a car from some bartender - I remember it was missing a back window - and we packed all our stuff in large garbage bags and threw the animals in the car and headed to Caitlyn's house. Her dad refused to let us in (don't ask) because of the pets and I don't even remember where my dad was living at the time because it was during my mom being sick etc. so after driving around for hours I had a great idea! We headed to my grandmother's house (say 5am?). I searched for the hidden key in a medicine bottle, found it, let us all in - pets included - snuck into the back bedroom and Caitlyn, her puppy, my cat Killian, and myself all got into bed and slept... Grandmother never asked a single question in the morning.

I could go on and on but instead will say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!