A couple of Saturdays ago we went out to eat with three other couples and their kids (who are friends of our kids'), and we invited along an elderly friend of ours, Jewell. (We ate at Chili's; great food and fantastic service!) Jewell is about 80 years old, and until a year ago she was still driving and doing most things for herself. But she has had macular degeneration for a while now, and so had to give up driving about a year ago. She still lives on her own and does most things for herself, though, but there are some things she needs help with, and she told me, "Lori, it's hard getting old and having to depend on other people."
Her kids sort of grew up with Thomas and one of his sisters, so she's known him since he was a teen, and looks on us like we're just more of her kids. She even calls my kids her grandkids. Andrew cuts her grass for her and Thomas does other things, like trimming trees and bushes and such. She got a kick out of watching Eler Beth helping Thomas clear out some brush from her property line last year. Eler Beth got out there and worked as hard as Thomas, and that just tickled her.
Well, Jewell has lived a long and interesting life and on the way to dinner that night she shared some more of her funny stories with us. I can't remember them all, but I'll share a couple. She told how her mother made homemade strawberry wine once and allowed her to have a little bit in one of those small juice glasses. Well, unknown to her mother, her older brother refilled her glass. Jewell said it tasted so good she asked for a third, and her brother obliged. Jewell said when she woke up she was under the kitchen table.
She was born in Shelby Country, Kentucky, but in elementary school her family moved to Indiana. She said for many, many years, though she still considered herself a Kentuckian. She married when she was almost 19 right before her fiance shipped out overseas (WWII). Their first child was born when she was almost 21. Right after he was born she lived near an army base, and one day she took him in his large, fancy, baby buggy to a store on the base. While she was in line the lady behind her askedher where she was from. Jewell replied "Kentucky", even though she had lived in Indiana most of her life. The lady behind her said, "I always heard Kentucky girls married and had babies young." Well, that really irritated Jewel, who was 21 at the time. So she said, "Well, some do, ma'am, but I was gettin' up there when I got married. They thought I was going to be an old maid, because I was 14 before I got my man." Well, that shut the woman up.
When she and her husband were first married, he went right off to basic training. Well, she, on her own, traveled from Louisville by train to the state where he was going to be stationed right after basic to get an apartment near the base all on her own. She'd never gone that far or done anything like that on her own before, but she did just fine. The day she went to meet Harold's train she stopped at a little drug store and sat down at the counter and got a cola to drink while she was waiting for his train. A big, good-looking guy sat down on the stool next to her and started hitting on her. So she slipped her hand in her pocket, pulled out a little notebook and pencil that she carried with her and wrote "I'm a deaf-mute, but thank you so much for wanting to talk to me." She said that guy just about fell off his stool trying to get away from her. She finished her cola in peace and then went to meet her new husband's train.
1 comment:
omigosh - Jewell sounds like a real jewel! i loved the stories. :-)
Post a Comment