Carol (Welcome to Party World)

You’ve heard me say it here before, and I gotta keep saying it: I can’t keep this project up without the support of the best team of volunteers I could ask for. I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have complete strangers write me long, personal emails telling me, that, yes, they want to jump on board and help me grow this project beyond its current state as a single class with a little blog. We operate as a digital team, mostly via email. Carol is one of the volunteers on my team, and last week was actually the first time we met in person, when she came to check out our physical class. Oops, did I say class? Because what I meant was, our rockin’ party!!

Welcome to party world.  That is how my introduction to “The Best Day of my Life” writing class felt.  A bunch of happy go-lucky seniors, writing about an event sometime in the distant past while singing, flirting, dancing in their seats, and celebrating a birthday, while led by an equally happy and charming young teacher, who came to this Senior Center by way of Hong Kong, Seattle and Boston. Young people say they party when they mean they drink together.  They could use lessons from this group.

Each of the group wrote an interesting piece, which reminded me of how things use to be.  When seeing Frank Sinatra, or eating a whole pie meant to be a gift to his mother was a big deal.  Or, remembering a lost son’s wedding and showing us the pictures, helped regain a happy moment in time. 

All had joy in their hearts that day.  Me too.  Thank you for that gift.