The Best Day of My Life So Far: April 2022

Thursday, April 28, 2022

A Visit from Benita (Gloria, Liz and Norman)

Two days ago we got a visit from Benita, the founder of The Best Day of My Life So Far. Longtime readers know that the first ever Best Day workshop was hosted in the Philadelphia Senior Center’s basement; after twelve years it’s a part of the center itself! It was great for us all to see her in person for the first time in years, but the best part was introducing her to new older buds (like Gloria) and older buds who just never crossed paths with her (like Liz.)

So today’s post is devoted to the new friends Benita made, and the OG older bud Norman, who knew Benita from the very beginning.

Gloria Nhambiu
03/29/2022
Untitled

Ten years ago, one of my doctors suggested that I should use a cane because my balance was off due to my left leg being shorter than the other. The buffer under the left kneecap was wearing thin. And of course, I ignored that suggestion. Canes are for old, crippled people, I thought, and I thought I was neither then and never expected to be. Fast forward ten years.
Today I went shopping on Marked East (the gallery and other stores). After walking one block and then entering the Gallery I found that stores are miles apart and I can no longer walk the long mall corridors with ease. The one block walk to the parking lot has lengthened. It felt like 2 miles each way.
So, I have decided that using a cane is not so bad after all. Funny, my friends have been telling me this for years.

Liz Abrams
11/23/2021
The Mutt

My favorite pet, besides my German Shepard, security dog Pal who was on the job during the day when Grandmom babysat me (that story was submitted some time ago titled The 3 Musketeers). The Mutt became a family member when, mom waling home to 19th and Diamond from Broad and Lehigh factory job—Cohen Bros—the Mutt decided to be an unpaid escort. During those days my mother attracted many males who offered to walk her home. She shunned them, but for some reason she allowed Mutt to act as escort that day.
Mutt walked her home to the door and went away. The next day and following days he became my mother’s official escort. My dad said, “Why you let that smelly mutt walk with you? He is dingy.” From that day on my mother brough the mutt inside, bathes him in our bathtub and fed him scraps from our table. Me, my sister and dad accepted him as a family member since Mutt was so loyal to all family members, especially me, since I was a poor eater of nourishing food prepared mostly at dinner.
After several scoldings from my parents to “clean my plate,” the Mutt and I became partners in crime. I secretly fed the Mutt my dinner. All was happy, especially the Mutt and I became the Mutt’s official Mistress. And the Mutt never gave our secret away. I hope to see you in Heaven, Mutt. You were the only real friend I had in my adolescence.
With Love,
Liz

Norman Cain
01/16/202
The Pending Migrations of Friends and Family Members

Recently, a dear friend and two relatives in my immediate family have decided to move from their localities. Moves that they have contemplated for some time, moves they feel will benefit them both spiritually and financially.
Several weeks ago, a friend (a male) of 50 years informed me that he and his wife were going to relocate to an area outside of Atlanta Georgia. They had visited the area and as a result decided that the natural beauty and tranquility would create a harmonious blend with their senior years. Since they will not sell their Phila home (which they will leave under the care of another daughter) they will periodically return to Phila for visits. I will see them on these occasions. I will also be able to connect in Georgia during my visits to Atlanta to see my sister and her extended family.
Several weeks ago, my oldest granddaughter, who had spent 5 years in Houston Texas, and a 3 month visit with her parents moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. The downside of the situation is that she will be missed; however, she will not be so far away as Houston; thereby making trips to see her easier. Also, she has family in Charlotte.
I was shocked when my daughter who lived in Orlando Florida told me that she, her husband, and daughter would be relocating to Germany at the beginning of 2022. She and her husband also lived there for several years when her husband was in the army. When I would visit them each year they fondly spoke of their time and expressed eventually moving there. They made up their minds. The time had come.
My Orlando daughter is not immune to traveling and relocating. She left Phila at the age of 19 to live with my stepdaughter who was a soldier residing in Hawaii. She traveled from post to post with my stepdaughter and eventually married her now husband after his “tours of duty.” They settled in Jackson, Mississippi and eventually Orlando, Florida. Like my friend that is moving to Georgia, they will not be selling their home, so I will see them on their rare visits to Orlando. Also, she and her husband have extended an invitation to visit them in Germany.
I will miss my friend and family members, but I reluctantly understand their wanting to migrate to other areas of the country and the world.

If you want to transcribe for Best Day, then email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org. You can also share our older buds' adventures by donating to Best Day, subscribing to our newsletter, sending a note to our older buds, or following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you or the older buds have Easter stories, then you or they can submit stories through our portal right here. We're especially interested to stories from Black older buds, but we're always looking for stories from older buds of color, older buds with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ older buds, older buds of any gender or sex, older buds of any religion, and older buds who just plain break the mold.

And don't forget to maintain contact with the older buds in your life. If you can't be there in person, please call them, email them, or message them on social media. And if they're using teleconferencing or remote events for the first time, give them a call and help them set things up. Check in on them to see how well they're getting used to these programs. Buy them a computer or an internet package if they don't have one of their own. It's a human right, after all.

Curated by Caitlin Cieri

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Spring Break? (Gloria)

It's springtime and I'm thinking of travel, but COVID's made travel more difficult. Between new variants and mask mandates that get lifted and reapplied like a flickering light it's hard to tell whether the vacation you planned will actually happen, let alone what masks, vaccines, and IDs you'll need once you get to the station. Today's story reminded me how easily our best laid plans go astray:

Gloria Nhambiu
12.07.2021
A Covid Cancelled Trip
My husband is the last of 6 sons born to a Mozambican family. Mozambique is a country on the East coast of Africa. The country shares its southern border with South Africa.
João, my husband, has been planning to attend the wedding of his great grandniece for at least 6 months. The ticket was bought, and reservations were made. João was scheduled to leave Philadelphia on Monday and fly from New York on Tuesday (today).
Two weeks ago the new COVID 19 strain was found to have developed in South Africa. Until Monday he was still planning to make the trip. But our son, Jasen and his wife Natalie convinces him to cancel the trip because they feared that travel might be banned from South Africa and the seven other countries on the tip of Africa. So, he might find his return iffy.
So, Joao is staying home and missing what is always a beautiful African wedding. I know he feels awful, but I am relieved that he won’t get stuck in a travel shutdown of anyone trying to fly out of that country. When the COVID 19 scare is over we can make the trip together.

Curated by Caitlin Cieri

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Easter (Frances, Delores, and Ann)

Happy Easter to all who celebrate, and to those who don't Happy Chocolate Rabbit and Chocolate Egg season! Either way, here's a couple stories to place in your Easter basket or non-denominational rainbow colored carrying container:

Frances Bryce
03.28.2019
What Shall I Wear Today?
I read that early memories (maybe the earliest that affected our later life has a connection. I recalled an occasion that I never forgot. It was imprinted on my brain even to today and choices I make about selection clothes, and what I wear today.
The memory, I am using today affect that part of my earliest memory.
My best friend and I attended church on most Sundays, but Easter Sunday was a special day when we had new outfits. That Easter Sunday, I did not get a new outfit, and that was not a happy day for me. My friend arrived at my home which was nearer to the church and we usually went together. She had on her new outfit of a yellow sweater, brown plaid skirt, saddle oxford yellow socks. I wore my old clothes, that I don’t remember what they were, but I do remember that they were not new.
Today, I am aware that my selection is done with care, and what I buy has to have the proper selection, so that I either have in my wardrobe something that complete the purchase or that I complete the purchase at the point when I buy what I need, so that I don’t have a skirt, without a blouse or sweater. I follow that rule when I shop. The other thing I find myself doing is often selecting what I am going to wear, and maybe change my mind but sometimes finally with the first thing I try on.
I do not follow fads, but am keenly aware what I think fits be best when choosing to add to my wardrobe. I can connect this to one of the earliest memories that connect to clothes and the choices I make.
Finally what I am wearing today is the third selection before leaving my house. I do not do this as a daily routine, but often enough to see the connection.

Delores Wilson
04.25.2019
Crime Doesn't Pay
Mysteriously my mother would be off every Easter Monday. She would give us the choice to stay home or go to school. It was supposed to be an extended Easter holiday, however Mom kept us busy from 9 o’clock until noon. Then we would eat a hearty lunch she had prepared for us. After lunch, she kept us busy until 3’o clock. I was in high school, and I had begun to learn the routine. As usual my mom would ask if we wanted to go to school or stay home. I told her that I was going to school- my girlfriend and I had decided we were going to hooky. It was the first time for both of us. Our friend who had graduated ahead of us was in the working place but was off from work that Easter Monday. When we arrived at her house she had breakfast ready. After we ate she answered our questions about her new job, and we watched the boring morning television shows until 1:00. The oddest thing, I felt convicted. I would have rather stayed home with my mom with permission. True, my mom would have kept us busy and gave us a hearty lunch. I had heard and seen students hooky, and I thought such a waste of time. I knew within myself that was the first and last time I would hooky from school.

Ann von Dehsen
04.25.2019
Easter Memories
My childhood Easter memories included Baskets filled with chocolate bunnies and jelly beans, brightly colored eggs about to transform into egg salad, dresses with petticoats that rustled when you moved, church service filled with sweet smelling flowers & sweet smelling mothers with conflicting perfume scents resulting in lots of sneezes.
But my biggest Easter memory, for better or worse, is going to Easter dinner at Uncle Howards and Aunt Mary Margarets. Howard was my fathers half brother more than 20 years his senior. He was the wealthy relative who worked on Wall Street, lived in a high rise apartment with lots of oriental rugs and enjoyed cigars and women, & liquor. Aunt Mary Margaret was Howards 4th wife much to the chagrin of my mother and other aunts who were still very fond of wife #3, Mona, currently working as a waitress in NYC.
Now Uncle Howard never had children and although he was pleasant to my sister, me, and our 2 girl cousins upon our Easter arrival it was obvious that he was not entirely comfortable. Aunt Mary Margaret (MM for short) made no attempt to talk to us beyond “hello, girls” as she ushered us into the t.v. room, turned the t.v. on to Roller Derby handed us a basket of jelly bean-filled Easter eggs & cracked a smile as she shut the door behind her. None of us had any aspirations to compete in the roller derby occupying the tv screen, so we were forced to consider other forms of entertainment. Our favorite activity was to write, “help! we are being held captive in apt 4c!” on strips of paper placed in the plastic eggs & dropping them out the window to the courtyard below. If anyone found our message in this day and age a swat team probably would have shown up, but we never received any response to our messages.
We also did our share of snooping, and one year we hit pay dirt – as we pulled a box from the closet filled with Playboy magazines. As we flipped thru those pages, we were shocked, appalled, somewhat disgusted and quite intimidated and concerned over own lack of development so far. Overall, it was a horribly unhealthy and unrealistic way to begin our sexual development, but it sure filled up the time!
When we heard MM’s high heels clicking down the hall, we quickly slid the box under the table. She arrived with t.v. trays adorned w/ her yearly canned pear bunny salad & pre portioned Easter dinner.
We were too young to appreciate the irony of eating our bunny salad as studied the playmate bunnies.
We knew our visit was coming to an end when we were summoned into the dining room to actually join the adults for dessert – (MM’s traditional egg shaped vanilla cake decorated with jelly beans). This was also about the time that Uncle Howard's many martinis became apparent as he began commenting on his sister-in-laws gorgeous legs & cleavage. So before you knew it we were on our way home, free from Howard & MM for another year.

Curated by Caitlin Cieri

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Out of Order (Diane)

As you probably know from reading this blog, we don't post everyone's stories every single week. That would be too much work for the transcribers, especially when we ask them to transcribe both audio and handwritten stories. Also, posting everyone's stories every single week would be asking a lot of our blog readers, especially on days where we have fifteen or twenty people in a session. We try to give our transcriber a few stories to transcribe at a time. Sometimes, it can lead to our stories being transcribed out of order.

I'm pleased to say, after all this time, we are posting both parts of older bud Diane's "Hurry Up GranPaw" series:

Diane Richardson
11.16.2021
Hurry Up GranPaw
My granddaughter Jourdyn, my son’s daughter, comes over twice a month for the weekend. She lives in Cherry Hill. Though she is not my husband’s biological grandchild, he loves her like she is. Her mother would bring her over to bond with us since she was born. At this time I’m writing about she was five years old. When my husband Joe gets up on Saturday mornings to run his errands so does she. He goes to the upstairs bathroom to get ready, and she goes to the downstairs bathroom to get ready. She comes up to get dressed and knocks on his bathroom door and says, “Hurry up GranPaw” and he hurries.
She stands there waiting for him to come out. He goes into the room to get dressed and she stands outside the room and says “Hurry up GranPaw.” Like they have a time to be somewhere and don’t want to be late. As always when she says hurry up, he hurries. She then follows him to his car and gets in the back with her intentions of going with him wherever he’s going.
Since returning Joe has a hobby of making wine. He makes all types of wine and there are very good. I gave him a wine making kit one year for X-mas and it took off. He gets a lot of requests for it. His buddy’s daughter was getting married and requested fifty bottles of assorted wines to put on the tables at the reception. Joe even makes the labels to put on the wine bottles to say what kind of wine it is and anything else you wanted printed on it.
So this Saturday morning he was going to the wine supply stored in South Philly to get his wine supplies. When Jourdyn went to school Monday the teacher asked what they did over the weekend. When she asked Jourdyn she said, “Me and my GranPaw went to the liquor store.”

Diane Richardson
11.30.2021
Hurry Up Grandpa—Story Two
Y’all remember my story last time about Jourdyn’s adventures with her grandpaw? So this Saturday morning she’s knocking on grandpa’s door saying, “Hurry up grandpaw, hurry,” as always while she waits patiently outside the door for him to come out. And she follows him to his car, gets in the backseat, buckles up like she was invited. So as Joe was driving preparing for a turn, he turned on his turn signal. Jourdyn asked, “What’s that clicking sound grandpaw?”
He answered, “To let the drivers behind me know that I’m going to make a turn. There’s a signal for a right turn and a signal for a left turn.”
“But Grandpa how is it their business where you’re going?”
He answered, “So they can drive accordingly.”
“Well, ok, and I’m not saying I’m smarter than you or anything grandpa, but I don’t think they can hear those clicking sounds all the way back there.”

And if you liked Diane's two part story, then keep an eye on our blog for the next few weeks ;)

If you want to transcribe for Best Day, then email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org. You can also share our older buds' adventures by donating to Best Day, subscribing to our newsletter, sending a note to our older buds, or following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you or the older buds have multi-part stories, then you or they can submit stories through our portal right here. We're especially interested to stories from Black older buds, but we're always looking for stories from older buds of color, older buds with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ older buds, older buds of any gender or sex, older buds of any religion, and older buds who just plain break the mold.

Curated by Caitlin Cieri