Another Birthday!

Today is my Aunt Verna's 89th birthday! She was born September 22nd, 1919 at Trenton, Ontario. That is Verna in the photo above celebrating her 85th birthday. I was in southern Ontario visiting at that time and was able to go to that celebration. Verna is my Mother's sister. All the women in my Mother's family on her Mother's side seem to have received the gift of longevity. My Grandmother lived to be 92 and her daughter, my Aunt Margaret was 87 when she died. My Mom is turning 79 in a week and she is so young physically and in her heart and mind as well. I think one of their secrets is that they all stayed active. My Grandmother kept very busy for most of her life with her Salvation Army activities and balanced that with home life and also traveled a fair bit. My Aunt Verna has traveled a lot in her later years also and kept busy taking cooking classes, going to church and visiting with her many friends and family. Aunt Marg also kept very busy around the home. She lived in her two story home right up to the end and she did most of the work inside and outside. She also had family coming regularly to visit and had many friends and her church to keep her busy. My Mom is always on the go. She has her Lion's Club activites, bowling leagues and she goes to bingo at least once a week and most recently has signed up for line dancing lessons at the local legion. She also recently started going to the Salvation Army again with her brother, my Uncle Doug.
All remarkable, amazing women and excellent role models.

When I was a child every year we would go to my Aunt Verna and Uncle Stan's house at Christmastime to visit with them. We would have a meal there and exchange presents. At that time they were giving me a place setting of silver flatware. They did this every occasion until I had a setting for eight and they also gave me the wooden box to store them in. I use and treasure this gift now so much.
When I was about 19 or 20 and just out of high school Aunt Verna arranged a job for me where she worked at Prudential Insurance in downtown Toronto. I was living in Brampton at the time and traveled by go train to the big city to work. I got to see Aunt Verna quite a bit. She would come to visit with me in the department where I worked and we would sometimes have lunch together in the cafeteria when our schedules allowed.
One summer Aunt Verna and my Mom came out west when we were living in Redcliff and they visited with us for a few days and then went back to Calgary and went to the Calgary Stampede. They had a blast. I really enjoyed their visit. My aunt likes to remember the trip she made to the Holy Land. She was so happy to have gone there and has many wonderful memories of her adventures there.

Have a great birthday Aunt Verna!