Celebration Cake and Shopping at Millie's

I had no idea at the beginning of the day yesterday the nice things in store for me...

I went to Bible study, and on the way downstairs to the class, my friend Jan Faler handed me a birthday card. It is late, and that's ok. Jan likes to do things that way, and it spreads the fun out a little longer. Well, when I got to my classroom, I was engrossed in reading the card and her message. I didn't realize the group of about a dozen ladies was kinda waiting for me to take note of the surprise....to celebrate the end of my treatment, Theresa, our leader, began passing around wonderful little individual frosted cakes with roses on top from our fantastic Underbrink's bakery. As we ate cake, I told them a couple of funny stories about the ordeal. When you do the Bible study, you end up having a pretty good bond with the gals in your group. It is amazing how much "real life" stuff is in Genesis, the book we are studying this year. We are having a good discussion each week and learning so much. And sometimes we laugh. A lot.

AFTER class, my usual routine is to join the Faler girls (Jan, Laura, and Kendall, also in the Bible study) and sometimes Lawson and Thom too, for lunch at Kelly's. It was a thoughtful time yesterday, as Thom's mom Millie just passed a couple of weeks ago after a lengthy battle with ovarian cancer. Here is the kind of person Millie is....I saw her at a soccer game years ago, and she was wearing a beautiful JESUS pin. I told her how much I liked her pin, and she took it off and pinned it on me. I never met Millie when she was in a bad mood. Always kind and good. She donated her body to science and requested no services. That has been a little hard on her children I think. Perhaps when they receive her ashes back, they will have a gathering to celebrate her life. Well, anyway, Thom and Kendall were talking about the challenge of cleaning out her apartment at the Senior Center. Thom told me she had lots and lots of clothes, and he was not sure what he was going to do with all of them. The Faler gals are small and maybe a little medium. Millie's clothes are mostly extra large. Well, when Thom found out I am wearing that size, as are a couple of my sisters, he invited me to go back to the apartment with them after lunch.

When I walked in, a few minutes after the rest of the family, I had to take a moment....here is a beautiful lady's life, all spread out, waiting to be moved on. I eventually joined the Faler gals in a bedroom and watched as they were trying on some nice sweaters and jackets. Soon Thom takes my hand and leads me to Millie's bedroom. He points me to a large closet and tells me to take out whatever I or my sisters can use. I am not sure about this. I think her family should take the clothes. But Thom wants me to do this, so I begin looking. And I am amazed to find some jackets and shirts that are like new, just need dusting off, and many of them are my size! And my taste too. I love fun clothes, and so did Millie. I spend about 2 hours there, and I end up with a big pile of things that will work for me or my sisters. Next Thom starts pulling her shoes out of the shoe closet. Many are new. He reports that actually, his mom preferred going barefooted! Can we relate??? The shoes are not my size, too small, but I call Mom and find out that we do have some size 8 gals in the family. So I gather a few boxes of those after Thom's prompting. I hope they will work for somebody. If not, I will bring them back.

So I have a few clothes for myself and possibly Mary Stella??? and some size 8 shoes that I will bring over this weekend.

After that, I went with Mario to the funeral home for Florence Knepler's visitation. Alan is ok. He said the funeral home did such a wonderful job with his mother; he said she looked the best he had seen her look in several years. She was resting in an orchid dress that was simply beautiful. After almost 97 years, she has her reward. God bless you, Flossie.

Next came the trip to Bergners with Mario to pick up his new suits. Yes suits. He bought two of them. Thanks to his birthday money and the translating job, he has enjoyed shopping for new suits and some very nice shirts and ties too. He didn't have any suits that were really for spring and summer, so now he has two of them.

I collapsed into bed at 5:00 and couldn't do much more during IDOL than think, "That was another uninspiring, unexiting performance." But now I guess it wasn't just me thinking that way. There are some girls with talent here, but I didn't think any of them shined last night. So I replayed "Imagine" from the night before, and I had a great night of sleep.

This morning Millie has been around here a bit as I have been trying on her clothes. She knows I like fun clothes, and I will wear them with the best spirit possible. I promise, Millie.