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11/16/2003 Archived Entry: "MILDRED HOLT AND SEND A CARD"

MILDRED HOLT AND SEND A CARD

I remember many moons ago when a friend of mine told me that her mother was "having a difficult time", as she had reached an age when all her friends were sick, dying or dead. Well, technically they were all "dying" as that begins happening when we hit age 40. That conversation doesn't seem like it happened long ago.

And I understand the meaning of that first hand now. Where once I bought a dozen birthday cards for friends, now I buy a dozen sympathy and get well cards and run out all too soon.

And, I recall my good friend Mildred Holt told me repeatedly that except for a handful of her local friends who were also in their 90s, her other friends were dead. These ladies would go everywhere together...to public meetings like the ones Dane held for the prison, school programs and church. They'd all sit on the front row with their accumulated ages and wisdom totaling about 500 years and be very supportive.

Mildred's friends didn't live to see her, at age 105, appear on the Johnny Carson show. She was supposed to appear on only one segment of the show, but she was so good he let her fill out the hour and the other scheduled guest never appeared. She was an amazing woman with a great sense of humor and wit.

She let it slip on the program, as she was tipping a drink, that she preferred hard stuff to the beer I took her. She didn't "name" me but I knew who she meant since no one else took her booze. She liked a pony can of beer before she went to bed so I kept her supplied, but each time I took her some, she reminded me that I shouldn't tell her friend Eva, who was a confirmed teetotaler. And I reminded her she was 100 and something and should do as she pleased. And she'd agree.

When she was 105 she was reelected secretary of the DAR for another 3 year term.

She was famous for her afghans...or as her friends said...afercans. I have a small one she made for me and I like it because she dropped stitches all over the place. Her eyesight was good, but as she aged she was in a hurry to finish everything so she didn't stop to correct mistakes.

Anyway, I was reflecting this morning on what Mildred used to say about all her friends dying or being dead....and I know exactly what she meant. My list of friends is being chopped because of that very thing. In addition to others, another half dozen of my high school classmates probably will not survive another six to nine months. We're talking about another reunion...but I have already begged out of doing another memorial for those who have died.

This isn't going anywhere....I was just pondering.