Charlotte's Birthday continued...

As I wrote in my last blog, Charlotte turned 89 on Saturday. I drove up to her town and met one of the co-workers from her Chapter, and she and I drove up the mountain (when I say up the mountain, I mean that literally. Charlotte and her late first husband bought their house in 1958 and to get to it, one must drive past one of the very very old California Missions and up three miles of winding roads). This neighborhood as well as most of the town can now only be afforded by the very wealthy so Charlotte and her present husband of over 35 years are very lucky to live there.

At the house, we met Charlotte and her daughter and all four of us went back down the mountain to a local Chinese restaurant. The food was some of the best Chinese food I have eaten and the company I was with was pretty wonderful too. We had a marvelous time talking about the Moose Organization and, of course, Charlotte shared some very old memories with us. We spoke of members who have passed on and just shared some funny stories of the way things used to be. After lunch, we stopped at the local ice cream store and picked up a birthday cake which we took back up the mountain to share with Charlotte's husband, son-in-law and old friend who stayed up at the house while we had lunch. Charlotte opened her presents (what does one give to an 87 year old woman who has everything - her daughter gave her a brand new state of the art waffle machine, and I brought a dozen yellow roses which are her favorite).

It was an absolutely super day with a very super lady. I never get tired of listening to her stories or being around her. She is someone so very special, not only to the Moose members but to everyone who meets her. We Moose are just lucky that she belongs to us, and we all know it.

Lynn asked what keeps her so young. I will tell you, it's her joy of life and always being optomistic which keeps her young. It's also what keeps her so beautiful. This is a picture I took Saturday.