Rant #1,392: Happy Early Birthday

Yesterday, just a few days early, we decided to give my mother a little birthday party.

My mother will be 84 years young on March 11, so doing it a few days early was really a no brainer, since her birthday falls in the middle of the week this year.

So we had over my sister and her family and my daughter, and this little get together was a lot of fun.

My sister's family had a tough day yesterday. One of my nephews was sick, the other had major car problems, and the other is going to school, so he wasn't expected.

But the small gathering that we did have made the day fun, and my mother had a nice time.

These pictures, courtesy of my wife, are great, but they cannot possibly fully show how much my mother loves life.

My mother is going to be 84, but you wouldn't know it from her demeanor, her composure, and yes, her ferocity.

She has the get up and go of a person probably a third of her age, and most of those people she would probably put to shame, too, with the way she goes about things.

She is in perpetual motion, and thus, doesn't have time to age or to feel old.

When you are in constant motion, you have no time to think such things.

So she goes about her business, and is the matriarch of our family.

She keeps things moving, she makes sure my father knows which direction he needs to go in, and I think she has a very satisfying life.

And, it goes without saying that my sister and I would not be what we are without my mother around to prod us like she does.

And she looks over her grandchildren with zest and zeal, and that also keeps her young, tapping her into the younger generation through them.

So here's to my mom, the youngest 84 year old on the planet.

I hope that I am as spry as she is at 84 when I reach that age, but as I get older, I see that my mother is really one of a kind, so I don't know if I will have the same zest that she does when I reach that age.

I sure hope so, though.