While all eyes of the world may have been turned towards Beijing last night, our family was celebrating the Lucky 8 in an extra special way. My paternal grandmother Adeline Kleven Seely Proctor celebrated 88 years of life on the 8th day of the 8th month of the ’08th year!
She got a lot of well-deserved attention over this unusual and special event, also! Two television stations interviewed her, a local radio station did a broadcast from her living room, and she even got a nice mention in one of the major newspapers. Finally she exclaimed, “Well, I feel so spoiled, I really am getting embarrassed!” (But of course, we know she secretly was eating it all up!)
Grandma Adeline is one of the most social and funny women on the planet. She loves to party, play games, tell stories, and laugh. Lots and lots of laughing! Which is good, because she has carried her share of sorrows, including the loss of her parents, all of her siblings, many dear friends and two beloved husbands. She told the reporters today that the secret to life is “Be happy, enjoy life, see the beauty around you and don’t worry too much about things, you know! Worry doesn’t help” She also says it doesn’t hurt to be Norwegian – because “We don’t age”.
Around 200 friends and family gathered in a beautiful backyard (actually, maybe there were more than that, it was a BIG yard) this evening ready to celebrate! The food was fabulous, the entertainment was spectacular, and the opportunity to reconnect with relatives was priceless. Of course, it wouldn’t be a party with Adeline unless there was lots of humor, and tonight was no exception! Some of it was planned, and some of it was not!The Planned Humor
The Unplanned Humor
My cousin, aunts and I carefully placed (approximately) 88 candles in Adeline’s birthday cake. Then, with a long torch lighter, we began lighting all of them. There was only one problem. When we turned around ready to sing Happy Birthday … no Adeline! As it turns out, grandma had decided to go inside the house to use the restroom. And, there we were with 88 candles making a small bonfire on the table.
Now, I realize that when you are 88 years old, you are certainly allowed to spend as much time as you like in the restroom. But, please know that every minute is going to be very noticeable when your birthday candles are already ablaze!
The photos tell the story better than I can…it was not long before the candles had burned down to cake level. The frosting roses ignited first, so we quickly made the decision to rescue the rest by unceremoniously blowing grandma’s candles out.
We got word right about then that Grandma was headed back and eager to blow out her candles! We frantically started pulling off all the mangled wax stubs, and reinserting new candles into the empty holes (quite a bit of wax had to be picked off carefully in order to reopen some of the candle holes). Once again, the candles were in place, the torch was lit and I led the group in singing a loud and energetic “Happy Birthday” song!
From the photos, it looks like poor grandma was in serious danger trying to blow out all those flames! But she did get them all blown out safely, with a little help from her “lucky 8” great-grandchildren!
The Entertainment
We were treated with authentic Island dancing – and the crowning event was a fire dance by one of the lead fire dancers from the Polynesian Culture Center who happened to be in town this week (lucky again) and is the twin brother of the family who was entertaining us. So, we got a really dazzling show!
Beijing may have had singing, dancing, laughter, fire and tender moments – but our family didn’t miss any of that last night! We had it all – and more – at grandma’s Lucky 88th Birthday Luau.
Latter-day Soprano 
Hooray for MoSop’s Grandma! I love grandparents. I’m always amazed to think about what our grandparents have lived through, with lives spanning most of the 20th Century. My grandparents lived through the depression, both of my grandfathers fought in the Navy in WWII, they went through the baby boom years, the tumultuous ’60s and ’70s, and already seemed “old” when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s. I’m very fortunate that all four of my grandparents are still alive. As far as I’m concerned, you can always Tivo the Olympics. But you only get to go to Grandma’s 88th birthday luau bash once.
Did you get a day off this morning? It was kind of funny, because that’s the one Music and the Spoken Word we always keep recorded, because the girls like to watch it every Sunday. I guess they just really like those Chinese kids. In fact they had watched it earlier this morning. When it came on, I thought my wife had just decided to play it yet again.
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Very nice sentiments, Sweet! I also feel extremely blessed to have three of my grandparents still living. They are such a treasure. I am constantly amazed at the huge span of history and changes they have experienced over the past Century.
The Choir has been on a mini-tour to Sun Valley Idaho this weekend to perform with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Since the return home could not be in time for the Sunday morning broadcast, a previously recorded program was shown. A rerun happens only about once per year – so it is funny the particular program chosen turned out to be one your family watches often. 🙂 That particular broadcast was chosen in honor of the Beijing Olympics.
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Oh! How fun! Your Grandmother’s smile seems to tell me that she has had a wonderful life 🙂
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What a wonderful birthday celebration for your grandma! Our Fire Troupe has only had the honor of fire dancing for the ages of 4-55 years of age birthdays! Maybe someday we will be honored to dance for an elder as well. What a treat!
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