Love to Carlene--on her 89th Birthday!

Carlene with Day, her oldest grandchild,
in Virginia this summer.

       On August 24th, 1925, Mildred and Earl Ogletree had their first daughter, Mary Carlene--my mother.

       Carlene slept her early weeks in a dresser drawer!

       Such a humble boudoir beginning boded well. Carlene sleeps like a rock.  "I fall asleep the minute my head hits the pillow," she says.

       But first she covers her face in Ponds Cold Cream, puts in her eye drops, and wraps her hair in toilet paper, a long strip of it anchored by two silver clips.  Then she falls asleep on her tiny satin pillow that she prefers to big fluffy ones. (She also prefers skimpy, threadbare wash cloths to thick ones.)

       When she's asleep, she's sound asleep; when she's awake, she's all the way awake, always ready for whatever might pop up to do: eating out with her friends, working on stained glass with a friend, or getting in the car with whoever stops by and ask her to get in!

       Here she is when she married her sailor boy in 1945, her lifetime sweetheart, my daddy, Lloyd:

When Lloyd died at the age of 80,
they had been happily married for 57 years. 

       I believe Carlene would say that joy and gratitude are her favorite words.   She is happy, grateful, vivacious, wise, and generous--never too busy to talk on the phone or stop whatever she's doing for a phone conversation.

       She gets up early to walk three miles every morning and she likes working in her yard--though she has a touch of sciatica and has had to cut back a bit on shoveling and planting.  Lloyd used to call her a "whirlwind"--an apt moniker.

       When I was a child, I was always amazed at how many things she could do in a day: working at a part-time job, teaching me to diagram sentences, planting flowers, cooking three meals a day, visiting with neighbors, talking books for hours with Bea, shopping and laughing with her sister Dot, and sewing every garment either of us ever wore!  For relaxation, she'd do crossword puzzles or cross-stitch in the boat while Lloyd fished.

       A combination of good genes, growing up on healthy farm food, laughter, exercise, and a gift for friendship--these are the ingredients for agelessness. Carlene is my model for growing older in years without growing older in all the ways that matter most.  Happy 89th birthday, Carlene!

Here we are at Will and Veronica's house on Easter this year