A 90th birthday party
Last night I attended the 90th birthday dinner of a lady whose family I have known for almost 50 years. It was a warm occasion at the Hurlingham Club blessed by some glorious weather enabling us to stand outside and admire the grounds of a club bang in central London.
Her son was MC and pitched his speech perfectly – not so much eulogy as an appreciation of his mother abetted by her six grandchildren who delivered shorter speeches no less moving for that. The lady who sat next to me goes to art classes with the birthday girl. She said that during the day she can be repetitive and forgetful but come the evenings a clearer mind emerges.
She delivered a few words of gratitude after all the speeches when the birthday cake arrived.
Old age is a subject that occupies quite a few pages of the Rust. Evenings like last night are the positive side when a family pulls together and produces a heart warming occasion.
