Loved By All

Here are more pics of my mother, the one I’ve been celebrating these last two weeks.  She was loved by everyone.  She was talented and willing to help others in many ways.  She taught piano lessons when we were young.  This nice photo at the piano was taken years later.

She learned how to cane chairs well and was wiling to help others with their projects.

I love this photo of her with two of the dogs.

And this one at the phone is typical of her–often conversing with friends.

Here she is with her dearest friend from college, Maggie:

My parents had many couples that were considered close, dear friends.  They also spent a lot of time with various groups of friends.  Here is my mother with Glen and Beth Exum.

And here she is with me!  This is the last weekend she came to Buffalo: in May before she passed away in July of 2001.  I’m glad we stopped briefly to have this photo taken.

 

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Mah Jongg

I’ve been sharing photos of my mother this week because she would’ve been 90 years of age recently if she hadn’t passed away from cancer in 2001.  She was a very social person and was involved in many groups–bridge, sewing, Mah Jongg, Daughters of the American Revolution and Music Club, among others.

Here she is with some of her bridge friends in Kansas City (she is on the bottom left and the lady next to her is Jac, the childhood friend that was shown with her in an earlier photo):

She also played in two Mah Jong groups in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  They usually played in various homes but occasionally made a special trip together to play in public places, such as in Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park.

They played for “big money”–nickels and dimes (and occasionally a quarter)–but it was still exciting at least once when she had a perfect game:

A Mother in Childhood

Today’s pics are of my mother as a child.  Enjoy this great collection from the early 20’s and beyond.

I love this photo of her with her best friend, Jac (my mother is on the right):

 

 

Baby Quilt

I recently had the pleasure of delivering one of my quilts to an adorable baby.  I enjoyed making this for our friends.  The design is called a “Disappearing Nine Patch,” because you start with nine squares sewn together, cut them up, then turn them to create this design.

Here is the new father and daughter!  Congratulations Mom and Dad!

 

Zip Line

The next place we stopped in Costa Rica was the zip line.  I had ridden one in Costa Rica and Thailand before, and was excited to experience the thrill of flying through the trees again!

To our surprise, we ran into some of the staff from the ship that were also going on the zip line.  It was great that we ended up in the same group so we could get better acquainted.  Later I was able to share photos with them, since they didn’t have cameras.

The girls had been tricked into thinking they were going to the beach, and they were dressed accordingly, which we thought was hilarious.

Their names and countries are Aleksandar (Serbia), Stanko (Serbia), Diana (Montenegro) and Lori (Croatia).

What a delight to spend this time with them, laughing, squealing, and being goofy (rather than the normal stance they would take serving on the ship)!

And — to top it off — guess who waited on us at breakfast the next morning?  This is always the best part of traveling — the food AND the people we meet!

 

 

Market Signs

Here are the final photos of signs from our trip to northern Spain.  I hope you have a feel for the culture and beauty of that country now.  We certainly loved our trip there, and will certainly go back again if we get the chance.

Signs on the Bike Path

Here are some of the signs we saw along the bike path in Spain.  I know that many of you, oddly, are very fascinated with the sign pics I post from trips, so here you go!  The Senda Del Oso is very well marked and easy to follow.  It goes through several villages as well as into the countryside, through tunnels and along mountain streams.