This is for you, Mom

My mother called me a little earlier to tell me it was her mother's birthday today.  She would have been 99 years old today.  And my mother is the only person alive who knew that.  (I don't count because I would have had to look it up.)  So... this is for my mother, who is no longer alone in knowing that today is Grandma Alice's birthday, because now you know it too.

I don't really remember her since she died in 1967.  I was three.  I have vague recollections of a white (or really light) piano, but that's about it.  I've heard things from my mother, of course.  I know she was one of fifteen children born to Clifford & Emily McLaughlin.  She was child number six, daughter number two.  She was born in Steuben, Illinois and came to California to take care of an aunt.  She got married on April 9th in Yuma, Arizona to Chester J. Doran.  They lived (and died) in Colton, California.
 


Alice Wilda McLaughlin b. 28 Feb 1913



This is Grandma Alice and my mother in 1949



We're going out to dinner tonight to celebrate her birthday.  After dinner, I'm calling Mom (who declined to go with us due to the weather) to ask her more about her mother.  I want to know more than just names and dates.



Baby Alice and her mother, Emily (Clifford) McLaughlin