Sectionals

Today was a really special day.  I was up and out the door early this morning.  I picked up my dear neighbor Wilma and we headed off to see Amelia swim at the Sectional swim meet. Wilma has never gone to a swim meet before and really wanted to see Amelia swim before it was too late and Amelia was away at college.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres made Wilma a big mug of hot chocolate and I had a delicious cup of coffee so we were all set for our road trip. We talked the whole way about life and love and the choices one makes to truly lead a happy life.  Wilma is a wealth of knowledge and she and her husband had been happily married for almost 65 years before he passed away last fall.  I still miss him almost every day.  He was the kindest man and Wilma is just the dearest person ever. She has kept a diary since she was 16 years old.  She writes in it every day without fail and in doing so, she remembers almost everything.  She said the best part about keeping a diary was that she was always right in winning an argument about what happened when.  Her husband Paul said he never had a chance.  Everything was in that diary - so he already knew he lost the bet before it had even started.  Wilma had been encouraging me for years to keep a diary so that I would remember all the little things in life when I got older. Today I told her that it was just a little over 3 weeks away from my online blog/diary being one year old.  She was really proud of me for faithfully writing every day.  Anytime I think I am too tired to write my blog or perhaps can't think of anything to write, I think of Wilma.  If she can keep a diary every day for the past 68 years, I certainly can muster up enough energy to write mine.  She is an inspiration and I love looking at her diary with her to see how things were way back when she was younger.  The cost of living has sure changed dramatically - but the things that make one truly happy haven't changed at all.  The essential pieces of a happy life are still exactly the same now as they were back in the late 1920's. We both agreed that we were so lucky to have found our forever love so young in life and we both have lived our lives feeling eternally grateful for that and all the blessings that have followed.  Our time alone today just chatting in the car was really touching. She is a remarkable woman. When we arrived at the meet my daughter was so excited to see Wilma.  It made her day even better.  Everyone on her team swam so well today.  They gave everything they had and left every ounce of effort in the water.  Amelia swam her very best times of her entire life and earned points for her team. Now we have to patiently wait for the results.  All the sectional times have to be tallied and accounted for and sometime tomorrow, we will find out if she swam fast enough to qualify for Districts.  We will probably hit "refresh" over 1000 times on the District swim qualifiers website anxiously awaiting for the results to finally be published. If she qualifies for Districts, we get to go to The Ohio State University next week for the big District swim meet. I think I might need to bring Wilma along again.  Amelia and I think she is our lucky charm....both at swim meets... and in life.