SEVENTY-FIVE

My last blog title was a number so I'll do the same this week.  No, this number has nothing to do with my blogs, but it has a lot to do with my years, yes seventy-five today.  Alan reminded my that's three quarters of a century.  I also realized that I am half as old as Canada as this is our country's 150th.  

I used to think that 75 is old but it's different when you get there yourself!  I read once that we think of someone as "old" if they are ten years older than you. Many people live into their nineties and even to the hundred mark these days so in that respect, I am just 3/4 of the way to a hundred.

A longtime resident of Frontier,  Norman Evenson, was really hoping to make that goal but died last week just 65 days short.  The amazing thing was that his memory was as sharp as it had always been and right to the last.  Two years ago he was taken to the Swift Current hospital on a weekend.   When he was wheeled to his hospital room he took a look around and said "I can't stay in this room."  The reason was that his Blue Jays as well as the Riders were both playing that weekend and there was no TV in that room!  So the staff assured this 98 year old sports fan that they would make sure he got to the lounge area so he wouldn't miss his games. 

 We were out to Frontier in October for their threshing bee.  Norman was there too, taken for an afternoon outing from his home at Wolf Willow Lodge in Eastend.  They had been at a cattle sale in Maple Creek another time and Norman had a notepad along to keep track of prices.  How wonderful to be in a care home that cares that much about keeping life interesting and meaningful for seniors!  I have a special wooden turntable that Norman made with a Norsk inset, a special keepsake and one we use every day.

I want to look through some of my pictures to see how I have celebrated birthdays in the past. (There won't be 75, I promise!)

My 1st with Grandma Erickson, who was 61

A party with my doll, Gloria

My 12th in Salem, Oregon
(Judy, the girl to my left, is still in touch!)

A teenage birthday

A DQ cake!

My 60th with Howard
(and the special quilt Sandra made for me!)

Elaine is 65 with 5 grandchildren
Eric, Lindsay, Carter, Dawson and Abbey
Ten years ago I had five grandchildren. This month they will all be teenagers.  Dawson now has his drivers license, Carter and Abbey their learners license. Those three are now in grade ten, Eric in eight and Lindsay in seven.  Since that picture I have been blessed with four more grandchildren - Jamie 9, Ashley 8, Nora 4 and Elly Clara 7months.

Ten years for each candle!
Three generations

Celebrating my 70th when Todd was home from Norway in
April, 2012.  I was living at the Moser home in Estevan
while Howard was at St. Joseph's Special Care Home.
Todd composed and sang a special song for me.
This was our last family picture with Howard.

We will wait for summer when Todd's will be here to celebrate my 75th.  Alan and I don't exchange gifts but we do enjoy our travels as our gifts to each other.  A trip to Norway was the highlight of 2016.  We are hoping to get in another trip to watch the Blue Jays this summer, perhaps to Kansas City in June.

Alan and I in Bergen, August 2016.

Our family on Dec. 17, 2016 here at the farm.

Last year Alan and I spent my birthday with special cousins, Myrna and Ernie Damm.  Myrna's birthday is five days after mine. We rode with them from Yuma to Phoenix and celebrated there after a special two weeks together.  On Tuesday we are planning to celebrate with special friends in Regina, Marilyn and Ray Scheske, who were witnesses for our wedding.  Marilyn's birthday is six days after mine so that will be our celebration this year.  Three close friends, all born in February 1942.

None of my rings fit the ring finger on my right hand so I ordered a Black Hills gold band for that finger.  Howard liked to buy jewellery so I'll say it's from him, in honour of my 75th birthday and in memory of the 50th anniversary of our wedding last July 23.  I will wear it today.

My mother didn't live two months past her 65th birthday so I am so thankful to be enjoying my 75th.  When Howard passed away three months after my 70th, little did I know what was ahead for me - three years later I was blessed to fall in love all over again with Alan,  my first high school sweetheart.  Next week we'll be celebrating our 2nd anniversary so my next blog post can be titled "TWO".

The weather even warmed up for my birthday.  Yesterday morning when we drove to the library it was minus 22.  This morning it has warmed up to plus 5!

An interesting point from 1942.  Daylight saving time was instituted on February 9 as a war time effort to save fuel.  It was repealed on Sept. 30, 1945.