Happy Birthday Pretty Girl!

This past weekend, Hubby and I attended a surprise birthday party for a special lady's 80th birthday. Both sets of our own Grandma's have passed on, so a few years ago, we adopted this sweet lady near our home, as our very own Tennessee Grandma. Her name is Everna, but we call her Gran-E (Granny) and just love her to pieces. Sid spoils her like crazy and teases her mercilessly whenever he sees her. She's feisty and teases him right back. She's always got a smile on her face and a sparkle in her eye and you always get at least a half dozen hugs every time we see her.

Granny has four sons and a daughter, who threw the lavish party for her. The party was held uptown in a building that was once an old grade school, but now is our community's rec center. It's also the place where Granny works part-time and where we first met her. Her children had the hall decked out when we arrived. There was a banquet hall filled with beautifully decorated tables. There was a huge table at the entry that was overflowing with gifts and next to the table stood a life-size cardboard cutout of Granny in her younger years that everyone was able to sign. They had a table filled with wonderful foods and desserts and another table with a grand, multi-tiered cake with fondant icing and chocolate covered strawberries draped on each layer. It was so pretty! There was a television set up in the back that played a DVD they had made of photos from when Granny was a young girl growing up, and all through the years with her siblings, then her husband, children and ultimately their children too. So many beautiful photos and in every one you could always pick out Granny from her beautiful smile. There were hundreds of happy photos and in all of them you could see what a full and wonderfully happy life of love Granny has led.

Granny's beautiful granddaughter Tara, who is the spitting image of Granny, by the way, was supposedly taking Granny to the Grand Ole Opry for a special treat, so Granny got all dressed up and was on her way when Tara asked if they could please stop off at the rec center so she could use the restroom real quick. Of course when they arrived, we were all waiting quietly in the darkened banquet hall and when they stepped in the door, we flipped on the lights and everyone yelled "Surprise!" You should have seen the look of shock on Granny's sweet face! It was priceless. She just kept looking all around at all the people and waving her arms. We all clapped and hollered and sang Happy Birthday as she went through the room and hugged every single person there. It was so cute. Once all the hugging was done, dinner was served and the Birthday girl was seated in her place of honor at the family table and donned with a sparkly tiara and a pink feather boa. She looked beautiful and was the well-deserved center of attention!

After dinner, Granny's one and only daughter, Linda, took Granny by the hand and led her out of the banquet hall and asked that everyone please follow them into the gymnasium. The gym was all set up with rows and rows of chairs and the stage was set for a concert of Bluegrass, which is Granny's favorite. Our own little Grand Ole Opry in Leiper's Fork! The family had hired a couple of bluegrass singers from Georgia by the name of The Buzzard Mountain Boys and they were fantastic! They played guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin and sang all kinds of funny, sweet, sad and sometimes familiar songs. In between songs, they told jokes and funny stories and kept us all laughing. Granny sat in the front row and was tapping her toes and dancing in her seat the whole time. During one song, one of her great-granddaughters, who couldn't have been more than five or six years old, asked Granny to dance, so the two of them took to the dance floor and held hands, dancing a little jig. It was so adorable. Both of them were grinning ear to ear.

When it came time to cut the cake, the family posed for more pictures. What a beautiful family they made as all four handsome sons and the one beautiful daughter surrounded a beaming Granny. Then once the bulbs stopped flashing and we all thought they were done, Linda calls out for another photo but they were missing one of the sons. I was confused at first, because I saw that all four sons were standing there, but Linda kept saying they were missing a son and pretty soon she called Sid up to the table. He was the fifth son! Sid was so touched by them honoring him as Granny's fifth son and he posed next to her and hugged her to him and whispered in her ear. What a memorable honor for him.

The cake was cut and served and oh was it ever yummy! More music with the Buzzard Mountain Boys followed cake and the party went on and on. I know Granny was just tickled pink with all the love that surrounded her that special night. It was the most beautiful party and we were so lucky to have been invited to share the memories. We love you Gran-E!