Ken and Helen Fosket and their kids, 1957. I’m on the left.

A Lesson Learned

December 3 fell on a Sunday when I was seven. It was Mom’s birthday. “Today is my mom’s 39th birthday,” I excitedly announced at Sunday School. Margie, my teacher, was mom’s friend. “No it isn’t,” she told me. I was stunned. It wasn’t a lie. “Yes, it is! I know it is!”

“You’re right—it is her birthday. But it’s her 29th birthday, not her 39th!”

That’s the day I learned that women are sensitive about their age.

Mom remained 29 for many years.

But when she got into the years that begin with the letter S, my goofy mom found that she could not say her age. She’d stutter out, “S-s-s-s-s-s”, but she couldn’t get the other letters out to form the word for any age between sixty and seventy-nine.

Sometimes You Just Have to Improvise

So she began to calculate her age in Celsius. Suddenly she was no longer 60. She was 15.55556 in Celsius!

She flew through those two decades, never having to reveal her true age. That is, unless someone in the room knew the Fahrenheit-to-Celsius conversion!

Since she reached her 80s she’s been able to live at peace with her age.

Mom has introduced her family to certain words or phrases that are peculiar to her. I don’t know where they came from, but they seem to suit her. Here are two examples: She no longer says Good for you but rather Good on you. And I wonder how many times this prayer warrior of a mama has prayed for my concern in that very moment, or has promised her prayer support with the words, I’ll tell God on you.

Mom’s 95th Birthday

This year she turned 95. We talked about a party for her. She planned a menu, a simple Saturday lunch menu that we might have had as kids. She rattled off a list of sandwiches and salads. Then she announced, “And cake at three!”

Ultimately the lunch at home turned into a meal at Anthony’s Homeport in Everett at noon. And then home for “cake at three,” of course!

Surrounded by her family, we partied the day away.

 

Mom and her Kids

Gram and her great-grands (2 missing)

200 photos of Gram with her Peeps

Party Number Two

I thought we were finished celebrating. But I got a phone call later that evening. Mom’s Bible study friends had planned a party for her the following day. Would Tom and I join them?

When the host had contacted Mom to arrange the party she asked Mom if she’d like to have cake at her party. Her reply? ‘No! I want potato chips!'” The snacks they promised turned out to be a wonderful spread of food, with lots of potato chips.

A group of us played Bananagrams. Whatever happened to those amazing spelling skills we had when we were kids?

We chattered, laughed, and ate. Clearly she is very well loved by these friends.

And when it was time for cake, out came a chocolate cake with a plastic tower on the top. It housed the candles. As they were lighted, they pulled away from the tower and became a ring of candles that rotated like a merry-go-round as it played Happy Birthday. Fortunately it only had fifteen candles.

Words of Wisdom

Mom shared a couple of pieces of wisdom with a few women at the party.

“One day I was driving down the road and I heard the Lord say to me,’What you will be, you are becoming.’ ‘What did you just say?’ I asked the Lord. He repeated, ‘What you will be, you are becoming,’ and added, ‘If you want to be a grumpy old woman you are going in the right direction!’

I didn’t want to be a grumpy old woman, so I changed my attitude.”

* * * * * * * *

“I once heard a radio preacher say, ‘Some people die living, and some live dying.’ I want to die living!”

Mom plans to live to at least 100. Good on you, Mama. Good on you!

Thanks, friends, for reading, Ginger