Another Year Older – John Hay – 94 y.o.
This week, my father turned 94. When he was younger, he didn’t think that he would live to be 90 and there have been a lot of changes in the world since his youth and even a lot of changes in his life in the past year. A few times, we didn’t expect him to make it to 94 either but, he did, and so, with a bit of fanfare, we celebrated his birthday twice this week. On the day of his actual birthday, he didn’t even feel like getting out of bed, so we postponed the celebration for a day. As nurse, Marie, said to me, “When you get to 94, you get to choose when you want to stay in bed :-)”.
Two of his grandsons, Graeme and Alan, had just returned from a trip to Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium; my brother, William (Bill), had been able to schedule a visit to be in Ottawa for a day the week before; and we had heard from his other grandson, Andrew, that things were going well at a geology project in Alaska. With all of that news to absorb, the birthday week was quite the event.
Adell had purchased an ice cream cake, four regular candles, and one of those candles that play music when lit. For those who need to know such things, we learned that two small wires go from the lit wick down to the base. Once the candle is separated from the base, the music stops :-).
I mentioned that we had two birthday parties. It just so happened, not by design, that the monthly birthday celebration event at Forest Hill was scheduled to start about an hour after we cut and served the ice cream cake out on the patio. While my father was eating his first piece of ice cream cake out on the patio (he loves ice cream!), the other Forest Hill residents were being assembled on the main floor to get ready for the entertainment and more cake that Forest Hill was providing for their monthly birthday party. It was going to be a good day. Oh, have I mentioned? I never turn down cake !!! :-).
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Next blog entry: Forest Hill monthly birthday party
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