MOM'S 95th, MARCH 20-24, 2025

March 20-24  Pennsylvania Mom's 95th

All the family came to help Greg's Mom celebrate her 95th birthday.  With two drop-in parties at Garden Spot Village - Friday for those who live in the Assisted Living area where Mom lives, and Saturday for the general comm unity and local folks involved in Mom's life.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon at Greg's sister Gwynne's in West Chester, PA - about a 45 minute drive from Mom and Garden Spot Village Retirement Community in New Holland, PA.   Brother Brett and his partner Dave arrived Thursday and we all visited with Mom and checked out the venues.  Gwynne has done a lot of preliminary planning and made all the arrangements - thanks, Gwynne.  Nice dinner and then back to Gwynne's. 

Friday, March 20

 Brett and Dave took off to get flowers for the event.  Gwynne, Greg and I collected photographs and other decorations.  In typical Johnson fashion,  the room was ready by 10:00 or so for the 2:00-4:00 event.  Greg and I blew up helium balloons, Brett and Dave arranged flowers, Gwynne arranged photo frames and Garden Spot provided the cake and ice cream.

Many residents from the assisted living and the skilled care areas came and enjoyed the cake and ice cream along with lemonade.  It was interesting to talk with folks, finding out where they came from, how they knew Mom and other details of their lives.

A slide show of Mom's life played on the tv screen.

A lady named Marian played piano for the Happy Birthday song and a good time was had by all!

We enjoyed a meal at The Coop.

Saturday, March 21 - THE DAY

Saturday was a beautiful day.  Less set up today as we transferred the decorations to a big room at the main entrance.  The balloons weren't floating, so Greg and I did a new batch.  Garden Spot had all the tables and linens set up.  The room looked great!  

This table had small cutouts of all the houses Mom had lived in!

Dave was the designated cake cutter. (It was half chocolate and half yellow cake and the chocolate definitely was the favorite!

Greg was the ice cream man.

Gwynne's friend Peggy came to help serve.

At 2:00 the line formed as many people came to help celebrate.  Mom had invited some outside people too, like hairdresser, masseuse, Gideon folks, Bible study friends, servers from the food service and others she is still involved with.

The young girl is Autumn, whom Mom has mentored and been in contact with for several years! 

Again, it was interesting to meet all these people and Mom visited with almost all of them as the rest of

 us welcomed them and mingled.  Lots of love and compliments for Mom!

We cleaned up, had dinner and then all went home, exhausted but happy!