Grandma Romrell's 90th Birthday

On December 11th my Mom turned 90! My niece, Laramie, discovered a cool coincidence. She is 30, her mom, LuDean is 60, and my mom is 90. So they are the 30-60-90 club. Pretty cool!

I made my mom this bouquet of 90 mini candies. I thought about a bouquet of 90 flowers but the price about choked me. So I thought she would enjoy this more anyway.

My sister, Karleen, hosted a lovely dinner party.

She had a doctor speak in her ward that told a story about a man who had cancer and was told by his doctors to go home and die. He was in an incredible amount of pain. He started watching funny movies and found that the laughter decreased his pain. So he continued watching funny movies every day and after a period of time his cancer went into remission.

So, since my mom and dad are in pain a great deal of the time, Karleen asked each of us to come with a joke or funny story to share. It was fun to listen to a few jokes, but the best were the memories that Chris and Jan shared.
Jan told about when she was a little girl and she really wanted to go to Kelly's store to get a treat. She finally convinced Mom to give her some money. She gave her some extra money and asked her to get her something too. Jan took this assignment very seriously and went up and down the aisle looking for just the right thing for Mom. She finally found it...a ladle. She took it home with pride and Mom accepted it graciously. It wasn't until Jan was a Mom aching for a chocolate fix herself that she realized Mom would have appreciated a candy bar much more than a ladle. So Jan gave her two candy bars for her birthday to make up for the misunderstanding so many years ago.

Chris vividly remembers when Jan was getting ready to go to school for the first time, and I hadn't been born yet. Chris felt just awful that Mom would be home alone and she told Mom how worried she was about her. Mom just smiled and said, "It will be okay." Again, not until Christ became a mom did she realize the relief my mom must have felt to be sending what she thought was her last child off to school and to actually have a few hours to herself.

My brother-in-law, Loren, took on the task of lighting all 90 candles. A few of us eventually pitched in to help accomplish the task before the first candles melted into the cake.

Mom didn't have much interest in blowing the candles out, so Loren and Jake helped her get the job done. But it was so nice when we were singing Happy Birthday to her she came in at the end with the harmony that she is so good at. It is nice to know that even when we aren't sure she is really with us that we get small tender mercies that remind us that she is still there.

We did finally get a smile out of her when all was said and done. It was a very nice evening and I always enjoy spending this time with my family.