90 years ago today Betty Lucille Startford was born. 20 year later she would marry Orvin Pat Barney and become Betty Barney.
And today in 2016, she is 90 years old.
And we are celebrating her wonderful life.
Karl took the day off of work and came up with the kids. We drove up to Logan. Aunt Shirlene was throwing Grandma Barney a birthday Ladies Luncheon and I was invited. Karl hung out with the kids at Shirlene’s house while I went to the celebration.
There was a wonderful display table as you entered the room with a picture book to sign and a cool frame with fun facts:
The room was beautiful. Pink, grandma’s favorite. She told me that day that pink roses were her favorite.
Each place setting was set and had a piece of candy and a game card.
This was the game:
This was the candy:
and on the back:
When grandma opened the candy at her seat she was starttled to find that it had her name and birthday on it. She made sure that everyone on the table knew. “I was about to just rip it open and eat it!” Which many of us did anyway.
Lovely Betty.
Many other beloved friends and family came. The room was full of familiar faces.
Look at this lovely lady who arrived.
Eventually the luncheon began and Shirlene got us going.
I was blessed to get to sit with Grandma at her table. Other’s at our table included Rachel and Kate, Uncle Alan’s daughter and grand daughter. (Alan is Grandpa Barney’s youngest brother.)
Grandma Barney and her dear friend Grandma — Brigham Moore’s Grandma and Chelsea Hicken Moore’s husband. Betty’s granddaughter, married —-grandson. Cute.
Lunch started with a tomato basil soup.
Then we had a ciabatta sandwich with a sweet salad.
While I ate this cute girl Melanie was on might right. And Betsy was on my left.
The time had come for the birthday girl to blow out her candles.
We sang, “Happy birthday dear Betty/Grandma/Great Aunt Betty/Aunt Betty”
Such a lovely and loving woman.
She got up and said a little something, I only missed the first few moment.:
Poor Betsy had to leave quickly. Her babysitter text. Rosie and Ginger had temperatures and she needed got and get them right away. She tried to arrange a few other things so she could stay but in the end, she had to leave early and get her children.
She said goodbye to Grandma.
Next up, grading our quizzes.
Betsy was very sure that she was right on for her answers. She was so confident she turned her paper over as not to allow any of us to copy her.
This is how she did:
Haha!
I got:
Melanie did the exact same: 6/12
Which is still 50%, which isn’t a passing grade.
Shirlene thanks everyone for coming, and the luncheon came to an end.
I helped clean up a little, and then we packed up the car and drove Grandma home. Uncle Alan was there and so was Grandpa Barney.
We ended up at the Hicken’s house were the kids all were waiting.
Grandma and Grandpa Barney arrived and we sat and visited for a couple hours with them.
They are just the most wonderful people.
Three generations! (missing one today)
We sat and talked about their time in Hawaii. I learned about grandpa Barney’s three month all paid sabbatical to different Pacific islands. The went to American Samoa, Fiji,Tonga, and New Zealand. They stayed in dormitories, and apartments above health centers (one night someone had a baby outside their window there) Shirlene even told us about going to school in New Zealand.
In Hawaii she had always been top of her class. When she went to New Zealand she was in school for a couple of weeks. The kids of her age were learning different things than she had learned. They were learning Algebra and she was still on long division. The story that everyone remembered was that she failed a spelling test. Grandpa Barney explained that the words she missed were because they were English spellings, not American spellings. Like Theatre and Colour.
Shirlene said she HATED it there. She said she had never told her parents that until that day. That the school was really hard. She stayed on a mattress in a corner of a living room, and she really didn’t enjoy that. She was 12. She was far from home and friends for a long time.
Lucas woke up from his nap and was acting out of sorts. He seemed to be a little warm, and he was just a little too upset. I was worried we was getting sick so we decided to leave.
Happy Birthday Grandma Barney! We love you!
My quiz. LOL!