Here's Jan in a vintage Luby's waitress pinafore found at a garage sale--and "old lady shoes." Last week, she played a waitress at a luncheon for Miss Ingrid's grieving octogenarian and nonagenarian friends. (Miss Ingrid, longtime friend, had died the week before with Alzheimers.)
I agree with her grandson Sebastien that Grand-Jan "looks much younger" than 70! She walks every morning and every night; she goes to NIA; she cooks healthy, beautiful meals. No doubt, she could easily wear the clothes she wore in high school if she still had them.
One of my first memories of Jan was being in a writing group together--she's a terrific writer. Another is opening the front door that first Halloween on Ogden and seeing Jan and her sweet late-husband Gene at the door, dressed in full Trick-or-Treat costumery, Jan a cat. Many a night, Jan has knocked on my door and given me a plate of cookies or a slice of quiche or something delicious left over from their dinner.
Gene was often my first good morning of the day--as I headed out to get a coke and he was watering his lawn. "Good morning, Lin!" he'd say. I always liked that nickname, and Gene is the only one who ever called me that.
Now that Kate--Jan's daughter--and Kate's two adorable sons have moved in with her, we have the happy voices of children playing outside every day.
Tomorrow, thirty or so of Jan's friends will be dancing NIA together in the afternoon, then returning to Jan's house for birthday cake.
In three years, I will join the club. For now, I'm looking at role models like Jan to see how it's done, turning seventy.
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