Grandma and Me

Here's the last picture I know of that has Grandma and me in it. It's from July 2000, the last summer I had that car, and we're on our way to check out the Great Blue Heron Music Festival. I'd take her there every year when she lived in Sherman. The last time was in 2003 when she was 98, making her the second oldest person to visit (host Julie Erickson's great aunt visited at 99). We toured the site in a golf cart and Grandma got a kick out of the hippie-kids' clothes. After listening to some old time music by The Buvas with Richie Stearns awhile, she said, "They don't sing much do they?" Pretty astute observations for someone who couldn't "see or hear a thing" for the last ten to fifteen years of her life. It was several years before I noticed the similarity of the print on my shirt and our pose.

Mildred S. McMahon

Here's Mildred in 1925. Twenty years old in the middle of the Roaring Twenties, four years before becoming a mother. She would go on to a couple months shy of 103 before dying.

Mildred S. McMahon

Here's Mildred (on the right) and her sister Hazel in Peru when they were in their seventies. Hazel always encouraged me to travel, grandma was a little more uptight about my adventures. They both told me about chewing coca leaves on this trip to deal with the altitude. Hazel died a few days before Mildred turned 100.