TIA JOSEPHINA

Yes, I am happily back in Mexico with the heat, humidity, and dirt, but this posting will not be about Mexico.  I am writing about my aunt's 100th birthday.  Don't fuss, I will get back to Mexico in fact I have two posting in the works.  This day was an important time in my life, so I thought you might be interested in it.

She is not really Tis Josephina, nor is she even Josephine, but just plain Jo.  Yet there is nothing plain about this remarkable woman.  She is, in fact, the most extraordinary woman I have ever known.  Not just because she has survived in such good shape for 100 years, and not because she was (and still it) a great beauty.  She is also one of the brightest people you will meet.  She still handles all of her own finances and investment (and does extremely well at it).  She follows fashion (Vogue, etc) politics, and all news.

She is also one of the kindest woman (the staff at her "home" all love her).  She has been a surrogate mother to me since my own mother died almost 50 years ago.  I think my favorite of her many traits is her quick wit  and a bawdy sense of humor.  Now, about her family.

She only had one son (who is in much worse shape than she is), three grandsons, two great grandchildren, and three great, great grandchildren.  All but one attended the party, along with their wives and significant others.  Like many large families, there are some feuds (some had not spoken to each other in many years) yet all seemed to gather around for her celebration.  Also attending were her younger (now deceased) sister's two children.  One I had not seen in 55 years.  Her niece (my cousin) seems to be the only one in the family to have inherited her genes.  I know she is close to my age, but she looks barely 45 or 50.

The highlight of the day was a slide show prepared by her youngest grandson.  It started with photos of my grandfather as a child, and when he was on the KU football team in 1896.  There were photos all through her long life including a lot of photos when she was modeling.  After leaving modeling, she became the top Realtor in her area, outselling every other Realtor.  I was delighted to see that the show also included my favorite photo of Serge.  It must have been a lot of work putting it all together and he deserves a great deal of credit for it.

We were all worried about her over tiring herself, so shortly after the slide show and cake, she was escorted back to her room.  She later said, that it ended much too soon and she was left with a "where did every body go?)  We assume she rested up for the party, but she really wanted it to go on for several more hours.

I have included a picture of her portrait that hangs in my bedroom in Mexico (how it wound up there is too long a story).  Then a photo I took at her party.  Yes, she does look older, but there is almost 50 years between the two pictures.  She is totally recognizable while my passport photo from just 20 years ago looks like another person.

She has not seen this posting (she has yet to master the computer) but she has seen other photos from the party and she was appalled.  She could not believe how old she looked and said she thought she looked like 'an old woman"  (at 100 you might ask??)  I told her it was her beautician fault.  I guess trying to do something special she gave her all those "old lady curls".  I told her that a simpler "do" would have made her look much younger.  You will see that I am right when I take a photo of her 110th birthday (assuming I am still alive)

********