memorial day

tomorrow I am hosting a lunch for my mother's friends on Anna Maria Island.  this is designed to be a memorial lunch for her so I thought maybe some photos from the book I made for her 80th birthday a year ago January.  she was very happy with the book and showed it around to her friends at the Lodge (her assisted living facility.) the book is reflective of a life well led and full of loving friends and family that my mother always had surrounding herself. 

one of my favorite mom stories is that after she no longer had a computer and I was tracking her investments she said to me- "don't send me updates unless the market is up, I never look at it unless it is good news."  that is so my mother!  my father used to say she was Pollyanna and not realistic but I can tell you she was a much happier person for remaining focused on the positive. 

she told me that she and her friend Fay always loved the saying "it is what it is" because of the truth contained within it.  both faced challenges in their lives and yet just dealt with them and did what they had to do.  today one of her friends sent her regrets for the luncheon and she ended with this statement "she was a good solider."  that she was and it made me cry. 

she met and mastered life's challenges with grace and dignity and a positive attitude that can serve as a model for all of us. 

Alice Jane Haight Heltman

"Jane"

January 21, 1930 - December 22, 2010

a girl scout at camp

 on a trip with her grandmother's sister and a second cousin

at a fraternity party with my dad around 1948

 at college at Miami University

 a wedding photo - her sister, Phyllis as maid of honor - November 1951

 Phyllis and Jane in December 1953

for a phone company newsletter - as a young married

 with my baby brother Jeff in 1959

 at a beatnik party in the neighborhood - circa 1961

 as a salt miner on our trip to Germany

 at her granddaughter Natalie's christening

at her 75th birthday party with Jeff, Phil and me 

 with her friends Sally and Fay at 75th celebration

and so tomorrow I will speak of her life and leave a little of her behind with her friends on the island.  and we will go on- just like she always did - good soldiers in the march against time...