today is my birthday

I’ll probably update this post throughout the day as a blog of my activities! That was a picture from dinner tonight at @sidetracks in Ypsi. One of our favorite spots only 15 minutes from downtown Ann Arbor but with way better prices and beers.

There is plenty of free parking nearby, but you have to be willing to walk a block.

Today is also James Abram Garfield’s birthday. But… he was born a few years before I was. He has inspired a lot of my work.

In fact, a significant amount of it.

So has Norm and his son Charles.

They are a family that demonstrates loyalty and selfless love. Norm was a professor at University of Michigan and had been retired longer than I had been alive when I met him.

We met when he was 92

He met my mom first

at the gym swimming laps

he loved to swim

he wouldn’t even stop after he broke his spine

the doctors told him he was going to die and he said

why would I?

so he didn’t die

but after he got pneumonia,

he did stop swimming

but continued to go to the gym a few times a week to exercise

just walking up steps and making friends

I once asked him the secret to his long and healthy life

I should publish my interview with him…

it was my first interview

back in college they said to interview a grandparent or older friend

but mine had all died

so i asked if my mom knew anyone

and she said norm lived just down the road

we could swing by

so swang by we did and

holy guacamole this man

invited us to sit by the fire

burning wood chopped by his son

and I recorded his rashpy voice

as he told us stories

mostly about his wife

the love of his life

who had died so long before

but whose love sustained him and their family

for decades to come

perhaps it is she who inspired me too

…

tea and lentil soup

and Scotch Scones for special occasions

I wish I had made you Scones for every last day of your life, my dear 100-year-old friend who died.

We’ve all lived 100 years in solitude.

He just did it before our eyes.

and it changed my life.