My mom, Barb, turned 90 this October. Making it to 30 was an ordeal for me and many thought I'd never get there. Making it to 90 and still walking on your own most of the time and living with a minimum of assistance is an epic undertaking. Mom and Dad are moving much slower and live at a retirement complex with assisted living options. They have their own apartment and mom still putters in the kitchen and makes some breakfasts and an occasional lunch or dinner. Most dining is done in the dining room at Primrose, where they live in Illinois. Dad needs quite a bit of assistance and now uses a cart he drives through the hallways and can take to the elevator to go downstairs for meals. He's a real terror in that thing!
My brother and I fly home every October to check up on mom and dad, and to celebrate mom's birthday. This year, however, was more special. We asked her if she had a preference on cake and she said she wanted angel food with burnt sugar frosting. This was something my brother recalled more from his childhood, than I did. A neighbor in Missouri used to make burnt sugar cake with burnt sugar frosting so he was pretty excited to have me find someone who could do something similar. The onus was put upon me, my sister in law Virginia and my best friend Anne to find the perfect bakery to concoct said cake. Well, Anne put in a call to her mom, who happens to be one of my mom's best friends. Donna, Anne's mom, knew of a bakery called Lana's in Decatur that might be able to do this.
Next stop was paying Lana a visit, where we found out she could indeed make us the cake but she'd never made the frosting. An elderly woman who was 95 came in and heard us discussing the frosting and said she knew the recipe and even knew how to make burnt sugar cakes. Between her and an internet search, Lana knew she could deliver. And believe me, when we picked up the cake the day of mom's birthday and then had that first bite after birthday dinner party, we knew we'd been "done right" by Lana.
To Lana's credit, she had her bakery decorated with a pumpkin sporting potato head adornments, so you can imagine how delighted I was to do business with Lana. Plus, she made my brother a burnt sugar cake he picked up the day after I left.
The angel food cake was a real hit with mom at her birthday party, but the coup d'gras was the Tiara I picked up for her to wear. Anyone over the age of 50 probably saw at least one episode of "Queen For a Day" on TV growing up in the 60's. I don't remember who the host was. If it wasn't Bob Barker, it should have been (aka Truth or Consequences host). In fact he went to college with my mom. Another story for another day. Well, Jan picked up a birthday card with Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Queen Elizabeth on it. We got other folks to sign the card from Barry O, Shelly O and Liz as a joke. We gave her the card prior to the cake and then brought out the Tiara. Mom was beside herself, and enjoyed all this joking and attention with great gusto.
We had eleven of us at the dinner: me, Jan, mom and dad, my step brother Jim, his wife Virginia, my best friend Anne and her husband David, Anne's mom Donna, and lifelong family friend Bob and his new wife Mary. It was a stellar evening that capped a great day, all day for mom. We managed to dole out birthday cards all day long to her prior to the dinner.
Jan says I've created a monster with the Tiara as mom was prancing around in the dining area at Primrose the next day at lunch showing off her Tiara and even wearing her corsage we had made for her.
I guess we done right by mom.
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