Yesterday, we held the dual 90th birthday party for my dad (whose birthday, as I mention below, was a bit over a week ago) and his fiancee Margaret (whose birthday is next week). I say "we," but Margaret actually footed the bill as a present to my dad. It was a catered affair held at the gym of Southside Baptist Church here in Olympia (adjacent to Columbia, SC, if I haven't mentioned). Easily 50 people showed up. We were joyously surprised that my mother's brother Eugene made it, with his second wife my aunt Sharon and his daughter Joanne. (His first wife, Joanne's mother my aunt Loretta actually lives with Joanne in Irmo and would have liked to come but thought it might be uncomfortable.)
Shining her own light was my aunt Jackie, my mother's sister-in-law, also up from Charleston. My father's secretary at DHEC for 25 years, Charline Brandt came, and brought her amazing scrapbook of my dad's career; we were totally bowled over. Margaret's entire wonderful family came. Special kudos to daughters Bunny and Linda for supervising, with extra plaudits to Bunny for brilliant cake management. Margaret's new great-great granddaughter Braiden captured every heart just by sleeping.
Dr. DuBose (I'm all but sure his first name is Hugh, but don't want to go out on a limb), who went to med school with my dad and roomed with him briefly, shared some delightful stories about the good old days. Some of the lovely people with whom Dad and Margaret went dancing at the Senior Center in days of greater mobility introduced themselves. One thing about looking almost exactly like my dad: it makes it easier for strangers to pick you out as a family member, which was rather a delight.
After we had folded up and cleared away all the furniture, we all went outside and each of us took a balloon. We released them on the count of three, letting them symbolize our hopes that we would all be back in ten years for a dual 100th birthday celebration.
Pix are up at Facebook, though I suspect that anyone who might be reading this knows that already.
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