This photo is about 30 years old, I think.  That's Mimi in the middle, my dear grandmother who lived to  97. 

As a 3-year-old (while my baby brother was being born) I went to church with Mimi and Papa where I probably adding commentary to the service and conversing with Papa. Mimi sweetly asked me if I'd like to go outside--to which I'm said to have answered, "I stay to church with Papa."

One of the highlights of every summer was spending a week with Mimi and Papa.  For a whole week, I had them to myself, drank a lot of chocolate milk, watched Lawrence Welk, and went to the S&S Cafeteria in Macon with Mimi.  My faves were fried fish, jello and grape juice.  

On the far right is Nana--to all the grandkids.  Day and Will used to beg Nana and Granddaddy to move to Texas.  Each of them took a day or two off school when they were visiting and spent those days doing whatever they liked. 

Today I was telling Carlene about a book I've skimmed: Outlive, a New York Times bestseller.  She was making pork chops and gravy and dividing it into little dishes to freeze.  

Her 98th birthday is this month and I'll be going to Georgia to celebrate.  "You can't tell anybody how to live a long, healthy life," she said.  

But people ask her all the time, 'How do you do it?" 

Sometimes she tells them she grew up poor and ate homegrown, home-cooked meals all her life.  That included bacon and ham, chicken and pork chops, potatoes and pies.  Not the stuff recommended in this scholarly book.

Sometimes she tells them, "Gratitude." 

Sometimes she tells them she eats an orange every day.  

Until her car wreck four years ago, she walked several miles a day.  Now she rides her stationary bike 20 minutes a day. 

When Papa was ninety, his doctor advised him to stop eating bacon.  "I'll quit after we finish the bacon we have at home," he said--never one to waste good food.

Long and healthy lives--the norm of Papa and the Ogletree girls.  In her early nineties, Mimi used to call herself "middle aged."