“I want to grow old without facelifts…I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I’ve made.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you?  You’d never wholly know you.”

–Marilyn Monroe

It is sad that Marilyn did not live to the age where she would know herself completely.  She seemed to grasp what a wonderful gift that would be — to grow old and ripe and fully aware of who we are.

Today is the 97th birthday of my great-aunt, Alice Stead Whiting.  Marilyn Monroe was born on Alice’s 13th birthday, as was laid-back TV sheriff, Andy Griffith.  Singer Pat Boone joined their birthday club the year Alice turned 21, and Morgan Freeman and Heidi Klum also joined the ranks as years went by.  I don’t tell you this so we can reach some conclusion about astrological signs or shared birthdays, but rather to sweep my mind across the years and try to realize how many interesting people and events must make up ninety-seven years on Earth!

When I think of Aunt Alice, I think of pearls and white gloves and lovely little shirt-waisted frocks that the happy homemaker would wear while cleaning the house and cooking meals.  I think of a time when ladies wore hats to church and dressed in semi-formal attire for airplane flights.  I remember these times from my own childhood and can picture Alice in the frame that would hold such photographs.

What is remarkable, though, is the way that my Aunt Alice has continued to be a modern woman as the definition has evolved over all these years.  She moved from dresses and high heels, to pantsuits and flats, to capris and sneakers as the world moved on.  And always she reads.  Oprah would have loved to have Alice in her book club, because she always was current on the latest bestsellers and the issues being reported in the news.  She kept her mind open to the changes happening all around her and accepted the younger generation and their new ideas as a way to stay current in a world so different from the one she was born into so many years ago.

She wears the face that life has given her, and she pays attention to being clean and well-groomed.  She continues to stay as active as her health will allow, and she looks for the surprises that each new day might bring.  I noticed, about fifteen years ago, that Alice began to recognize the things that came her way in life as “the best ever,” and I think this attitude of enjoyment and gratitude has gone a long way toward making the later years more pleasant.  It lifts our spirits to say, “that was the best piece of lemon meringue pie I’ve ever had!”  And it doesn’t hurt the baker to hear it either.

A certain sadness has entered Alice’s life in the last couple of years — the years where she feels like the sole survivor among her peers.  Maybe it is when we find ourselves no longer surrounded by those who have known us through the years that we come to wholly know ourselves.  You’ve touched my heart, Aunt Alice;  and I hope that you can find the place within you that will let this be the best birthday ever!