Sunday the 11th was Mom's 91st birthday. Mom has always had standby jokes and one of them was the venerable Jack Benny's "39" year(s) after year(s). This was definitely repeated in a room set aside at the assisted living home that hosted a birthday tribute attended by roughly a dozen.

And a rough dozen or so they could be. One of my Washington state brothers called Mom, or was called, and was put over a speaker phone on this end. He texted a question to me if the land line in her room had a speaker phone capability and used a word to describe the background radiation he and I don't normally use, among several, in our dispatches. There are no "Adam's" or "Henry's" in the extended mob, but put them together and it describes a fair amount of behaviour.

I just about never get phone calls from Mom any more, but she used to faithfully do so especially to hear my history for the day answering machine messages. Just don't ever commemorate Martin Luther King Day, among other things.

Well, she'll probably be Catholic to the end and one of the 12/11 natal days was the 1475 one of Pope Leo X, who reigned until 1521 and I believe presided during the festivities of one, speak of two thirds of the devilish details, Martin Luther.

Given the antics of six boys during Dad's long odd shifts, there probably is considerable empathy there!