Cutting the cake
My mother will be 95 years young tomorrow. Physically she’s not as mobile as she once was. She still has her mental faculties, although by her own admission she does have “intellectual interludes”. Don’t scoff, I’m twenty-nine years her junior, and I have them as well.
Today one of my brothers and I travelled to Whanganui and took Mum and my sister out to lunch at their favourite café, where we chatted about everything from last week’s disastrous floods – the worst in in recorded history in the Whanganui region, to a recent case where the courts declined to give a cancer sufferer the right to seek assisted suicide, to the influence American churches have on US politics, to the anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior affair, to catching up on the affairs of our whānau (extended family).
Afterwards we returned to the home shared by my mother and sister, where we continued with our conversations while preparing for afternoon tea when a horde of grand children, great grand children, and friends and well wishers arrived.
As can be seen in the photo of Mum cutting the cake, she is still in good health, and thoroughly enjoyed the day. At the rate she’s going I won’t be surprised if we celebrate her 100th birthday in five years time.
Another Spectrum 
28 Jun, 2015 at 8:22 pm
Wow, that’s amazing Barry. She doesn’t look over 70. I hope she keeps going. That is wonderful.
28 Jun, 2015 at 8:23 pm
love this post 🙂
29 Jun, 2015 at 2:57 am
Wow. She looks amazing. My wife guessed mid-60. She was super surprised to learn she’s 95.
29 Jun, 2015 at 11:48 pm
What does she say her secret is, Barry? I tend to enjoy the answers to that question. Green tea, daily walks – whatsoever it may be!
30 Jun, 2015 at 11:55 am
She says that if she knew what the secret was, she’d bottle and sell it.
I think genes have a lot to do with it. Her three older brothers all reached their 90s. Her two younger sisters are in their late 80s and early 90s, and her baby brother is in his mid 80s. Her grandfather died in his 95th year, and I remember him as a tall (6’3″) spritely man with a full head of black hair and a wicked sense of humour, even in the year before he passed away.
30 Jun, 2015 at 1:06 pm
Well, based on the photo and your description, a lively intellect would seem to play a part.
30 Jun, 2015 at 8:01 pm
A lively intellect? Perhaps. She’s typical of her family. Life is to be lived. If you don’t make a new discovery every day, you’re looking in the wrong places. Life is an adventure. That attitude seems to be in the family DNA.