Every Saturday morning for the past 20 years or so, they have breakfast at the Swiss Pastry Shop. We tried joining them a couple of years ago when Joel was just starting to sit in a high chair, and all we remember is trying to keep the boys from making a mess and being too loud. We vowed that one day we would go back, just Jav and I, to enjoy a more relaxing breakfast with these two special people.
We had our opportunity last Saturday, since each boy spent the night with a different set of grandparents for our Friday night anniversary date (more about that later). George drove us. Yes, I said George. I was a little nervous, since I have ridden with much younger people that have scared me to death. But no problem with George. Smooth sailing. Everyone in the restaurant knows them, of course, and were pleased and surprised to see they had guests. It was a lovely breakfast. Great stories, from both sides of the table, and delicious food with two people that we have grown to love in the eight years we've lived in our house. George even took the trouble of driving us home the long way, so that we could say we were with them the last time we drove over the 7th Street Bridge going over the Trinity. It's coming down over the next few weeks so that a new one can go up.
Their house was the third one built in this neighborhood, the first one on our block. George was born in Clovis, New Mexico. He retired from Texas Electric many years ago. He has outlived all of the other retirees from his class, so now plays poker once a month with some younger retirees. At 90, he still does all of his own yard work. My mother claims this is part of the reason he is still up and going strong. When he finishes the yard, he sits in their breezeway porch swing and has a beer. Jav claims this is another reason. George loves the Rangers and never misses a second of a ball game. He is no-nonsense, plain spoken and has a dry sense of humor and is just as wise as he can be. We can't see that he has anything physically or mentally different about him, except that in the past year or so he is moving a tiny bit slower than when we first met him.
I don't know as much about Billie's past. (Shame on me, I need to ask some questions!) I know that at one point she worked outside the home, I believe in an office setting. Her parents were very close to George and helped them out many times when they first were married. They have one daughter, Georgeanne, and were mature parents, just like us. Billie is in great shape mentally, but has vision and hearing problems that keep her from living the life she used to. George is having to do most of the cooking now that her eyesight has gone downhill. But she loves our boys, gives me WONDERFUL parenting advice, and has one of the sharpest senses of humor of anyone I know.
Allison, their only grandchild, is a sophomore in high school. They attend all of her plays, piano recitals, musicals, band concerts, soccer games, and awards ceremonies. And then some. They keep her dog when she goes away to camp three times each summer. They are doting grandparents to her, and she is there about twice a week to have dinner with them.
Jav and I talk more now about aging and how it gets a little daunting and depressing as you get older. Losing people you love is hard to think about, and so is realizing your own mortality getting closer and closer. But it just doesn't seem to bother these two. They just get up and live the life they love every day. It's as if they don't expect it to change or go away, and don't seem to pine for the way things were. Maybe in private it's different, but to all of us in the outside world, they just live simply, do things that make them happy, and quietly and gracefully accept this life as it moves along on down the road. Maybe that is the best reason of all for their longevity.
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