…to all my Family and Friends. Easter has always heralded the beginning of Spring to me even when it is cool, and the saying Spring is in the air seems so welcoming.  Although gone are the days of preparing Easter baskets at mid-night and finding new places to hide the eggs, those good old days are tucked away inside our hearts and we return to them on Holidays such as this.  Sunrise services give reason for Celebration.  The robins will soon appear as well as the crocus and daffodils.  Easter is a time to gather family around you, and in the case of many in The Villages our friends are our family and we gather them around us today.   Have a Happy and Joyful Easter.

…was a very special person in my life. She was a mentor, an idol, and someone I wanted to be like when I “grew old”.. I got to know her when she was in her 90’s. Her daughter was a good friend of mine and for quite a few years she had been trying to get her mother to leave New Jersey and come live with her here in Florida. Daisy would visit from time to time, but always wanted to get back to her home. She had been widowed for many years, as was also her best friend. They lived in a two family house in Prospect Park New Jersey. Daisy lived in the first floor apt. and her friend in the 2nd flr. apt. Daisy still drove, however her friend did not. They took care of, and looked after each other, and she was not about to give that up. They ended each day when her friend would come down at 10 pm to watch the 10 o’clock news, and enjoy a drink together, a Manhattan. She was in her 90’s when she finally agreed to live with her daughter. I was probably in my 70’s when I learned she would be joining our Thursday night dinner group. We were five couples who had gotten together every Thursday for dinner for years. I figured because of Daisy’s age they didn’t want to leave her alone so they would have to bring her. I wondered would they have to leave early to get her home to bed. I should have known with a name like Daisy that she has to be special, and special she was. In her mid 90’s she stood 5’8″, sprier than many in their 70’s and just the epitome of a Grande Dame. I happened to be seated next to her and we bonded immediately when she ordered a Manhattan, (with instructions of how dry she wanted it), and I a vodka tonic. Very few of the woman drank and now I had a 95-year-old drinking partner. She read the New York Times every day, from front to back. She could talk about anything, she was so so interesting. We discovered early on that our birthdays were in April, two days apart, so for several years we always went to lunch at special restaurants, mostly in Mt. Dora. Daisy grew up and lived her whole life in Prospect Park which was a very religious town, I believe Dutch Reform. All the cars had to be off the streets on Sunday, even had to be taken to nearby towns if they had no driveway space. Also, you could not hang clothes out to dry on Sunday and many more restrictions. I know Daisy went to church down here, but we never discussed religion. However, I do know that she liked to play poker on Sunday afternoons, and just in case any of her Prospect Park friends called as she was leaving for poker, she would always say “if anyone calls tell them I’m at Church”. I had never known someone in their 90’s so smart, such a zest for life, so many friends, and who drank and played poker. Several years after coming to the Villages and joining our group, we were together on a Thursday night when she fell ill and was hospitalized. The doctors wanted to take tests to see what was going on and she refused. In fact, her daughter wanted me to talk some sense into her, which I tried but realized very quickly her mind was made up, so I stopped trying. She spent a week in the hospital and was then moved to Hospice with the thought she would get stronger and go home. That Thursday night Sean and I visited her before going to dinner. She was cheerful, her old self, and as I left, I said I’ll be back soon. I remembered how happy she was when she said, ” Well I’ll be going home soon.” We had dinner and as we left Sean and I decided to stop back to see her, as it was her first night there and we could entertain her with the goings on at the dinner group. As we approached her room there was a sign, Do Not Enter, see the front desk. Daisy had really gone home. She was a breath of fresh air; she was remarkable, and I can only hope to be as vivacious as Daisy in my late 90’s . I think of her often, especially as my birthday approaches. I shared with my friend Daisy’s last words to me that she was going home, and the look on her face was so happy and peaceful. My friend said her mother’s last words to her were “don’t forget to get a birthday card for Charlotte’. She was my mentor; my idol and I hope to do her proud.

…Day to all. The above leprechaun was witness to a very unusual event one spring evening. I happened to have had Carolyn over for dinner and as usual had a couple of drinks. As I walked her to her car, (let me backtrack, just that day I was in the garage and saw an array of spray paint. Every color you could ever imagine or ever need, and had thought to myself, where can I use all this paint?) back to as I was walking down the sidewalk, out of the side of my eye I see the leprechaun. He really needed some sprucing up and I all of a sudden remembered all the spray paint. Carolyn leaves and I go into the garage, get some red paint and come out and spray paint his hat. Feeling so proud of myself I go back and get some green paint and doll up his jacket. Now I’m really into this new painting project and I go back and get white paint for his beard. This is when the leprechaun witnessed the very unusual event. As I approach with my white spray paint, after having a few drinks, and wearing very cumbersome slippers I trod across the stones to continue my restoration project. Before the white paint hit the beard, the fumes, the drinks, the slippers and the stones all played a part in this unusual event. Fortunately I did not fall straight back as I would have hit my head on the sidewalk, but rather I twirled around and fell backwards into the very small pond,

where stunned I lay wedged in, my legs and feet up on the rocks. When I was young I never was good at sit-ups but at my age I have a stomach but no stomach muscles. In order to get out I had to do a sit-up, which was impossible. I tried and I tried, and even waved frantically at cars that rode by, but had no luck with either attempt. As it now was getting dark I was resigned to the fact that I might spend the night in the pond and was feeling very fortunate that the next morning a man was coming over to clean it and get the pump going again, so he could help me get out. I did continue to try to get out and at one point , with the luck of the Irish, I rolled over and pulled myself onto the stones where I laid for a while to regain all the strength I had lost getting out. Eventually I crawled down the sidewalk to a chair where I hoisted myself up on to and burst out laughing. The next morning the man came to work on the pond, he comes to the door and in his hand was the white spray paint, hands it to me and says, “strangest thing, this was in the bottom of the pond, now how the heck did it get there?” I didn’t fess up, but thought to myself, you think that’s strange, you just might have found something else in that pond that was bigger than a can of paint. Again, Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

…to get this published and if I do it took so many steps i don’t know how I did it.

… i’ll do it!!! For several years now I have had many people encouraging me to get back to writing and I kept saying that I should, and I will. I’m not sure why I stopped, well actually I do, a few health problems and the loss of Sean. I felt I had no more stories to tell, what should I write about, my lung cancer, my heart attack and various other health issues? I don’t want to talk about them, let alone who wants to hear about them. Another stumbling block was, and is, technology. Because I have been away from blogging the site that I use has been updated significantly over the past few years. In order to do anything, post or introduce pictures etc. is all new. I have to learn the system all over again and I think I had reached an age where I said to myself, I don’t want to learn anymore. I guess you would call it shutting down, however a recent health scare woke me up. I was not afraid of a negative outcome to my health, but the thought of not being able to be on my own weighed heavily on me. I realized that you can not expect to be on your own and get frustrated and shut down the minute challenges presents themselves. You have to continue learning and engaging or you won’t be able to be on your own. Hence, with encouragement from a very special friend, (who you will get to know in future stories) and many others I am posting and hoping that I will figure out how to publish this. If you get to see it, know that I am learning and will be on my own for many a year to come. Hmm, what should I write about..my hair suddenly falling out? No, well actually it may be of interest, how many are worrying about their hair falling out?

…my sister Julie for sending me this wonderful book, that should be on everyone’s reading list and book shelf. It was a gift that will keep giving as it is a book of hope for these uncertain times. Discover the four most unlikely friend’s stories and their most important life lessons. Their conversations should be a class on how to be a good person. Besides the messages that are thought provoking, anyone who enjoys the art of illustration will be thrilled with the drawings through out. A wonderful work of art and a wonderful window into the human heart. Pure joy.

…to spend time with my son Joe and daughter-in-law Laura for seven days on the Florida Intercoastal Waterway at Ormond Beach Florida. We had beautiful views of the sunsets each evening and being right on the water had a wonderful breeze that allowed us to really enjoy the deck almost morning, noon and night. We would start our mornings with coffee on the deck, and finish up with drinks each evening as the day came to a close with the sun going down. We also were two blocks from the ocean which had a perfect beach with gentle ocean waves, nothing like New Jersey beaches. Despite the corona virus, we really enjoyed ourselves and hope to come back in the future with more family members. The change of scenery did us all a world of good. Loved loved every minute.

…away for a few days. I have the wonderful opportunity to spend a week with my son Joe and daughter-in-law Laura. Prior to the covid they were planning to visit at some point this summer. Because they both work at home in Charlotte, NC it was decided it would be safe for them to visit sometime in late August. The closer the time came I think they thought what are we going to be doing in The Villages for a week..so they scouted around and found this river house to rent for a week on the Intercoastal Waterway in Ormond-on-the-Sea, Florida. It is also two blocks from the ocean so we have the best of both worlds. I am excited of course to see them, but also excited to enjoy a week in new surroundings. I’m not planning on taking my computer, so wanting to let you know that it will be awhile before I blog. I’m anticipating to be fine and will be blogging in another week or so. Wish you could all come and sit around the table and enjoy great company and conversation.

…a time I practiced being in the choir. It’s amazing that during this time of isolation memories surface more easily, perhaps we are left with our own thoughts for many hours on end and have nothing but memories to entertain ourselves with. I never realized how much I wanted to grow up and be like my two older sisters, but the other day one surfaced as if I had done this just yesterday. I was 10 years old and I was practicing to become a member of the choir at the Church of the Epiphany. Our house had a hall that ran down the middle of the house with rooms on both sides. I would start at the end of the hall, holding a book and I slowly would walk down the hall and across the living room. I would slowly walk around the back of the couch and gently put the book down on my imaginary choir rail and continue with singing. Was I singing, or pretending to sing, or humming, I have no idea, but I definitely was in the choir. This came to light the other day when my older sister sent me a recording of her singing in the choir this past Sunday. Each member sang their part at home and a few went to church to record their parts and then someone put all the voices together. Amazing the technology, a virtual choir. Jane singing (Click on Jane twice and click on URL) It is beautiful and hard to believe there were only 18 choir members. I’m sure the Epiphany choir that I aspired to be part of didn’t sound at all like that and when I questioned Jane if she had been in the choir, she said she had but doesn’t remember practicing. However, I did practice and when I look back, did I want to be in the choir or did I want to be like Jane? Or Julie? Well, that’s another memory for another day.

…alligators. As I have mentioned in the past I live on a preserve and in the last few months have had plenty of time to observe the day to day goings on of the inhabitants. This week we were presented with another batch of whistling ducklings, tiny fuzzy balls of fluff, all 14 of them. They feast on bird seed and listen to Sean talk to them. Our teenage ducklings started flapping their wings about a week ago and are now able to fly around the preserve before falling to the ground exhausted. I couldn’t help but think of Orville Wright and his first flight…the ducks would flap their wings and run along the grass and maybe get a few inches off the ground. It took a week of this before they became airborne and now it seems they delight in making a round trip over the preserve, all nine of them. They will be gone soon but we will have our fuzzy balls of fluff to watch grow up. Because we are at home all the time, as I said before, we have become keenly aware of the goings on of the preserve’s inhabitants. We always knew we had an alligator and we would see him/her off and on over the years. Twice we had baby alligators appear on our porch and in our garage and once when Sean decided to take the vines off the tree by the preserve, the alligator appeared and Sean disappeared very quickly, never to cut the vines again. The tree is on the edge of the very small pond right off our property line. About a month ago the maintenance department was cutting the grass near the tree and the alligator appeared, threatening the men with open mouth. They said she was about 13 feet long and figured she was protecting a nest, which is what Sean had thought when she threatened him. We didn’t think any more about her. Last week our little pond seemed to be in constant motion. We kept watching and couldn’t figure our why the water was always producing ripples. Was it bugs, was it frogs, nothing would surface, we were really curious as it would catch our eye every time we stood at the kitchen sink. In the meantime our alligator would lay on the bank of the pond almost looking like she was going to go in, but it seemed only her head submerged. She also was spending a good amount of time in the water with just her head emerged. I decided to check out alligator behavior and have now realized that all those ripples are baby alligators, could be 30, 50 or even 90. The female alligator will make a nest out of vegetation, she’ll lay her eggs and then cover it up. She will lay next to it to protect it from predators and also to regulate the temperature of the nest. If a nest is 87 degrees or lower the babies will be male, if it is 91 degrees or higher the babies will be female. She keeps it between 87 and 91 degrees by removing or replacing the vegetation, which ever is needed to produce both male and female little ones. The babies will start making noises like a puppy before they hatch and she then uncovers the nest. They are born with between 60 to 80 teeth and are approximately 6″ long. They have an extra tooth on the end of their noses to break through the shell. The tooth falls off after it has served it’s purpose. Some will hatch in the nest and she will transport them to the water on her back. Others she will transport to the water in her mouth while they are still in their shells, she’ll submerge her head in the water and shake it real hard to break the shell and release the baby. Not sure how these were hatched, although I do think she brought some to the water in her mouth as she laid on the bank with her head in the water. Anyway, all these ripples are alligators, and I am sure of it because she now spends time in the water and the ripples are all around her. When she moves the ripples move right along with her. She does try to protect them but unfortunately there are many predators. I read several different accounts of their survival…some say only 1% survive to adulthood, which takes 10 years to be considered an adult, as you have to be 6 feet. Another account said 3% reach adulthood. All in all there are things to be said about this pandemic…when we stop and look around us it is amazing what we see and what we learn.