She's the oldest member of my family, although there have been quite a few others who have made it into their nineties - so if you're reading this kids, don't start lining up my nursing home place just yet....
She's very nearly blind now but is very sharp in other ways. We were the first to arrive at the residential home where she lives and went straight over to congratulate her. She was sitting under a huge birthday banner and was flanked by a beautiful cake on one side and her card from the Queen on the other. I asked what she'd been up to so far that day. She told me that lots of people had been taking her photograph - "I've probably cracked a good few lenses already today!"
She was laughing and smiling throughout the afternoon, just how I remember her from my childhood. When I asked her what her secret to a long life was, she told me that she just thought about living for today, one day at a time. She said she didn't worry about yesterday as it had already gone and as she didn't know what tomorrow would bring, there wasn't much point worrying about that. Always just try and enjoy today she said.
Good advice I thought. Try and live in the moment. Maybe she was a Zen buddhist master all along and I just didn't know it! Joking aside.... I'm sure she got it right. Let's face it, she's had 100 years of practice. So here's to you Auntie Cis - congratulations and may you enjoy many more birthdays, you are an example to us all.
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