99.9...

My Aunt Leah, who was going to have her 100th Birthday on January 19th passed away.....it saddens me, but I know that she had a beautiful long life and I guess she decided a PAR-TA in Heaven to celebrate 100 years would be better than any party down here!

2003 Cypress Gardens

In 2003 I took my Aunt Leah to Florida to visit my Mom & Dad for her Birthday....when she turned 91....and we had a BLAST!  She told story after story and it was a week + that I will never forget!

She asked us if we would take her to Disney if she bought the tickets....who would tell her NO!  But we bought the tickets and took her for her 1st trip to Disney.  Little did we know that we would be closing the park down that night....she wanted to stay til the end!

Disney 2003

We took her to see the Space Shuttle take off....

and put her feet in the sand at the beach...

Ate some Birthday Cake...

Even did a little site-seeing...







Mom, Dad & Aunt Leah 2003

Even took her to the Strawberry fields...

Me, Aunt Leah & Mom

Aunt Leah being the Queen of Strawberry...if only for a day!

If only I would know the things that she forgot!  She was spry and witty.  She never learned how to drive but could take you a million miles away with her stories. 

In 1939 she and some others drove from Missouri all the way to NYC for the Worlds Fair.  It took them a week to drive there.  CAN YOU IMAGINE....that was BOLD, BRAVE and ADVENTUROUS. 

She was married to my Grandma's brother and the 4 of them used to have so much fun together.  Great memories of all of them are just tucked away in my heart!

She has been widowed since the early 1980's and had lived all alone in her home until 2008 I think...she was a very healthy lady up until the past year....and so thankful for that!

I went to visit her this past Friday night...and I am so very glad that I did.  The hospice people had come in and moved her room around to reposition her bed to better help her...and they had to remove her TV from her room in order to make the new arrangement work.  She said "oh well, the Cardinals are not playing baseball anymore so there isn't anything good on TV anyhow!"

This week on her 100th birthday we will be celebrating...maybe in a funeral home, but we are going to have St Louis Cardinal Birthday cake in her honor.  She didn't quite make it to 100 yrs old....but it is close enough for me!

2008













I know that when she got to heaven....her husband was waiting to her with a hug and a kiss.  Then my Grandma & Grandpa were right behind him ready to take her money at play'n rummy!