100 Years Young

I'm writing this from seat 25A on an American flight from JFK to LAX. Amazing what technology can do.

The day before Thanksgiving my Dad and I made the long trek (like 5 miles) to Carmichael to visit and old friend. Marjorie Loyd has been a family friend since before I can remember. She sewed the robes for the Small Blessings (children's choir at Westminster Presbyterian), she sewed the costumes for my musicals and she regularly drove the older ladies of church to service (most were 10-20 years younger than her but needed help).



Mrs. Loyd is now 100 years old. She lives in an assisted living facility in a 2 bedroom apartment and has very little vision or hearing left and relies on a walker. While she's showing some signs of aging she is as sharp as a tack.

We had a wonderful few hours with her. I think they made more of an impact on me than on her (she has lots of visitors - she's very popular).

She said that when she's not having guests for lunch she sleeps a lot. Besides that she likes to sit in her most comfortable chair and just think about her memories. She said she has so many wonderful memories she likes to just sit and think about them all.

How amazing is that? What will we look back on at 100? Probably not the family with 6 kids who took a very long time getting through security. More likely the afternoon spent walking around NYC with a cousin and his growing family.

Oh and Mrs. Loyd... she's on Facebook.



She did share one awesome memory. She said she came upon my brother when he was very young sitting outside the Sunday School room. She asked him why he was sitting outside and not inside with everyone. His response was, "I just can't be good in there". She said she spent several minutes talking to him and asked if he could be good now. He said, "Yes, I think I can be good now". I'm fairly certain that's exactly as it happened. Classic Blake.