Today would have been my grandmother Williams’ 104th birthday and our usual celebration of that milestone would be an elaborately designed cake baked by my father in which the candles would reflect the combined ages of her, me, and Uncle Roger who all had birthdays in the first half of May. If we added my oldest son Nicholas whose birthday was yesterday…we could kick that number up to 251! The cluster of early May birthdays rule…unless you’re buying the presents! 😉
The last one I remember was “153” which was a full-sheet with a circus theme (which was not a surprise…circuses were his favourite as he was at the time a performing clown and card-carrying graduate of the Ringling Bros Clown College).
I’ll never forget us transporting the three full-sheet three-ring circus themed monstrosity to his church in downtown Daytona Beach. This was the one where the deacons later quietly told him that the women of the church were tired of losing the baking competition to him and thus he was involuntarily “retired” as an undefeated three-time champion in that classification. He didn’t mind that terribly…he had enough to do making sure the church orchestra had all of the music transposed to every instrument’s key and in their folders for Sunday services. 🙂
Ahhh…memories!
Speaking of which, this would also seem an opportune time to thank everyone for their recent birthday wishes. No matter whether you’re down the road a bit or across the country…whether I’ve seen you yesterday or 10-15 years ago…every one of you who has put up with me over these years is a very cherished part of my life and I can’t imagine my life without you!
To all those I love near and far, may this coming year be a good one for all of us.
Erik Williams
12 May 2017(Cindy Lewis Boulds)
I told my mom that it was your grandmother’s birthday today. She would have been 104 today. I was sorting a drawer in a desk at my mom’s Sunday and found several letters from your grandmother and a letter from your dad in Vietnam in 1967. I told my kids that the McClerrens ‘s mastered the art of handwritten letters, a lost art!
—
And such wonderful penmanship for both of them (and Aunt Nadine for that matter!).
I must confess that was a skill that didn’t make its way to me. There is a very good reason I type things for a living…if a computer had to make sense of what I’ve written out by hand, I can only imagine the electronic apocalypse that would follow. 🙂
Seriously, I think of Aunt Oma Lee often and hope that she is doing well in spite of her challenges. She was very special and kind to me even if I didn’t get to see her all that often.
I will never forget how she and Uncle David were kind enough to have Dad and I come round for a wonderful dinner of fried chicken and the best tasting corn in the world from right across the street that time we came to Illinois for Grandma’s funeral.
I had spent the prior two weeks in Rochester MN on TDY at IBM and when I walked back into my house in Clayton, I reached up to the phone on the wall and it rang with Dad telling me her remaining time was quite short. I don’t remember much of that night except sitting down at Grandpa’s piano (which is just down the hall from me now) and playing until 2355 hours.
As you might imagine, I hadn’t really eaten all that much in the days after that phone call (and two weeks on the road was certainly not much for one’s eating habits!) so by the time we crossed the bridge over the river into Illinois and got the invite to divert to Harrisburg…well, you didn’t have to tell us twice!
I also won’t forget Uncle David showing me his satellite-based gear for tracking commodities prices at the various ports along the Ohio…I had never known farming had gotten so high-tech and it certainly excited the nerd in me.
But best of all was the tour of Galatia and Raleigh afterward…having not spent much time in Illinois, it was absolutely wonderful to be able to see all of these places I had heard of but didn’t really remember from previous trips when I was very young.
*THAT* was a gift beyond words and one for which I will be eternally thankful. Were it not for that leisurely tour, I’d have been totally lost when I came round for Aunt Nadine’s funeral and later discovered the treasure trove of slides that I converted to digital last summer.
So even if she might not remember me all that well…do tell her that she is very well remembered and loved here in that “other” Raleigh. 🙂
Erik Williams
12 May 2017(Becky Lewis Claborn)
I find myself going down memory lane a lot more often nowadays and it is often something subtle that gets me to taking that “stroll”. Now that Dad is gone, I do find myself missing “that call” on my birthday that would always start off with the same inane question which would get the same inane answer of “pretty much the same as yesterday”.
Even though there will never be another who will quite equal how Dad would ask that question…Julia and Alexander did a great job getting me to laugh at Alexander’s pretty decent attempt at asking “the question” in spite of his speech challenges.
That smile on Alex’s face and his laugh are worth more to me than all of the presents and money in the two worlds! 🙂