P5090031

Originally uploaded by jicarney

I was looking for something else on Flickr just now and found this. This is my grandmother, from just a few weeks ago at my parents’ 50th anniversary party on May 9. My mother is on the left; Peggy Horton Hackney, a family friend, is at right. Grandmother is about to eat a meatball my mother had brought her from the buffet line.

She has a much more pleasant expression in one of the official photos of the event taken by the wonderful Kimberly Warren.

The scheduling of the surprise party, more than a month before the actual June 13 wedding anniversary, was determined by various travel and family schedules. It turned out to be a remarkable blessing. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if we’d been in the throes of planning the party at the time of Grandmother’s illness and death. We’d have ended up calling it off. This way, Grandmother was able to attend and my parents were able to enjoy the party