Pete's BLOG-Day 26,513. Final comments on sister Jan's 80th birthday party.

Today is Sunday, June 23, 2013. No stats today. My weight was 162.8 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Morrison: "That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what she/he really is."

My THOUGHTS today are about sister Jan's 80th birthday party.

I told a few more memories I had of Jan. In 1951 her boyfriend Don was in the U.S. Force. He would write letters frequently and one night after supper I had saw a letter from Don laying on the kitchen. So I grabbed, opened it up and started to read it out loud. The first paragraph was filled with words like honey, dearest, sweetheart, etc. As I was reading Jan started chasing me around the supper table trying to catch me and take the letter away - but I just kept reading. Mom was listening and she was laughing her head off and didn't even make me stop. The second paragraph wasn't nearly as interesting as the first so I handed the letter to Jan. The result of that episode is that Jan did not leave any more of her love letters laying around where I, or anybody else, could get their hands on them.

Another good memory of Jan is that she was a pretty good piano player. She would play all the latest songs and I would sit by her and sing along. Some of the songs I remember her playing from the early 1950s were: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes; Now is the Hour; Galway Bay; Deep Purple. Every time I hear those songs on Lawrence Welk
or Guy Lombardo I comment to Ruth Ann that Jan used to play that one on the piano  in 1949-1951.

And one more memory I told Jan was about a patient in the Rest Home named Bill Abbey. Bill was confined to his room so Jan would deliver his food tray to him. One night she brought him his tray and Bill was sitting on the edge of his bed trimming his toenails with his jack knife. Bill wanted to show his appreciation to Jan. He had a slab of cheese on his nightstand so he asked Jan if she would like a slab of cheese. She said yes so Bill takes his toenail cutting knife and cuts off a piece of cheese and hands it to her. She accepts and thanks Bill for his thoughtfulness. Needless to say it went in the nearest garbage can. That story is good for a laugh every time I tell it.

I also thanked Jan for the love and care she gave to Mom while in the Martin Luther Nursing Home in the middle to late 1980s and early 1990s. She was the one of us 9 kids who got the brundt of caring for Mom in the last 10 years of her life. She deserved a big thank you from all of us kids.