December 11, 2010 was my mom Betty Adams' 80th birthday. My sister Linda from Southern California, sister Gloria & Ron Keeping from Nevada plus their son Troy & Maryann Keeping from Arkansas attended a Christmas musical at the Placerville Adventist Church, then we enjoyed a hearty meal together. Diana isn't in the photo, because she was behind the camera.
Sunday December 12 at midday a bunch of us were busy setting things up for the birthday gathering at the Placerville Adventist Church Fellowship Hall.
As Mom Betty walked in at 1:10, a group of family and friends from across the country were there to wish her a Happy Birthday. A popular place was the photo display of her life during the last 80 years.
As more friends arrived, there were many warm hugs.
Old friends shared happy memories.
Maryann Keeping from Arkansas gives her a big hug.
Betty with Kathy Weldy, Maryann Keeping and Vern Weldy.
I enjoyed a visit with Fred & Maryann Brodderick.
Why the worried look Mom? You're surrounded by family and friends!
Visiting with old friends Joy Tash and Joyce Adams (not related to our family).
When Daddy walked in, an old Mexican friend greeted him.
But he hadn't seen her since 30 years ago, and couldn't remember who she was! She gave him clues, but he was still stumped.
Finally she told him outright - Queta!
She had been best friends with my sister Lanita in the mid 1970's, and lived in our home in Mexico during a school term. She was just like a daughter in the family.
Her visit was a pleasant surprise to our entire family! Her husband David Quinteros and beautiful daughter Ketita came too. Ketita's husband has relatives who live in Placerville!
We had a table by the door with Guest Book pages, a basket for birthday cards and cards for guests to write short messages for the Memory Scrapbook.
Celian, Betty & Fred (that's me - best known by family & old friends as Freddie) Adams.
Linda: "Oh, Daddy, if you take off your cap, I'd better comb your few hairs into place . . ."
Gotta look just right for the photos!
A few here on this side . . .
OK, now the photo should look better. Lanita was still on her way from the airport after flying in from Maine.
OK, time to enjoy the goodies made from scratch by church friends - vegetable platter with spinach dip, a variety of breads with pesto and sun-dried tomato spread, 3 kinds of hummus with crackers and pita chips.
Also fresh-pressed apple cider, hot drinks and homemade carrot cake!
My mom had only one birthday party in her life - put on by her friends when she turned 16. So this was quite a special event for her - as December birthdays often get overlooked!
Looks like my nephew Troy is about to topple over!
Susan Hager prepared the food, with the help of her son Jonathan. Karryn Schaff also helped, and created the lovely flower bouquets.
Betty with our Mosquito neighbor Elisabeth Bingham (who so kindly provides garden manure from her horses) and Bonne Daggett (who coordinated our wedding in 1981).
Photo with another friend, Carleen Leise. Will they EVER get to eat???
Eventually we all were scattered around, enjoying the food and visiting. Linda was on the phone with Lanita - to find out when she'd arrive.
Russ Mitchell & granddaughter Gillian Trujillo from Reno enjoying themselves.
Daniel Allen & Gene Witzel surprised us with their appearance! Mr. Allen had taught Lab when my sisters took Nursing at Keene, and Mr. Witzel was my Construction teacher at PUC, as well as a great asset overseeing construction projects on many mission trips. Daniel Allen is married to Gene's daughter.
We enjoyed a nice visit, as we don't get to see each other very often.
After the food, out comes the birthday cake! (Background: John & Joyce Adams & Joy Tash).
"Happy Birthday to you . . ."
The cake was simple and too small for 80 candles, but these worked fine.
Ready to be blown out!
"OK Honey, time to blow out the candles!"
"You mean I have to blow them ALL out? In one breath?"
First attempt . . .
Second try . . .
"These aren't trick candles, are they?"
No, they're plain candles. Keep trying!
"Honey, I'm getting dizzy. You can blow out the rest!"
She finally blew them all out on her own!
Now for a photo with great-granddaughters Emilia & Gillian Trujillo.
Then a photo with Great-Grandpa eating his cake!
Finally - youngest daughter Lanita arrived at 3:20 p.m., all the way from Maine!
So happy to see Dad again!
Lanita brought two of her four kids - Kandice (a Registered Nurse) and Kami Kay, better known as KK.
It's always fun to be together as a family! Linda, KK, Betty & Kandice.
Then the BIG surprise - childhood best friends Lanita and Queta - together again!
Wow, what a treat after so many years!
This is Queta back in 1978. It's been a VERY long time!
Lanita and Queta graduated together from Linda Vista Academy in Mexico. Our parents Celian & Betty were a bit younger back then!
What a special treat - Linda & Lanita so delighted that Queta had come!
Linda & Lanita with David & Queta Quinteros and their lovely daughter Ketita.
We just couldn't help ourselves - we needed LOTS of pictures with Queta & family - who knows WHEN we'll see them again!
Mother & daughters.
Boots (Ellen to us), Lanita, Gloria (Eileen to us) and Linda - happy sisters all together!
These sisters LOVE their brother, and invited me to join them.
It's not often we get together as siblings!
Betty with Russ & Boots, daughter Deana and her girls Emilia & Gillian.
Celian & Betty with oldest daughter Gloria & husband Ron Keeping, their son Troy & wife Maryann.
Betty with Keeping families joined by good friends Kathy & Ven Weldy.
Family picture: Kandice Medina, Celian Adams, Boots Mitchell, Linda Adams, Emilia, Gillian & Deana Trujillo, KK & Lanita Medina, Betty, Diana & Fred Adams, Troy, Gloria, Ron & Maryann Keeping, Russ Mitchell.
Eventually nearly everyone left but the family, who seemed reluctant to leave. And in spite of Betty's request for no presents, some people just couldn't help themselves. Besides, what's a birthday without presents?
Kandice and Emilia wait in anticipation to see what Betty receives.
Yum - a jar of Montana wild huckleberry jam, from the Leise's.
Savoring each card and gift, Mom uses Daddy's pocketknife to carefully open each present without messing up the colorful paper.
A nice music video.
What could be in here? Gotta save that perfectly good wrapping paper!
Wow, a genuine newspaper from December 11, 1930 - the very day she was born! It's the Los Angeles Evening Herald - the articles and ads are really fun to read!
Deana's present had a unique creative pine cone "bow" on it!
Meanwhile, Daddy & oldest daughter Gloria look through photos and notes from family & friends in the Memory Scrapbook made by Lanita.
She loves her Daddy so much, and still feels pleased with herself that as a little girl she found a new Mommie - her teacher Betty Landstrom - to marry Daddy when her birth mother left home.
Eileen's scrapbook pages tell the story of how she found her new Mommy as a little girl.
Page 2 of Eileen's tribute of love to her much beloved Mom.
Still opening presents - warm socks and a soft fuzzy bathrobe.
This present is from Kandice - a genuine gourd bowl from the Amazon jungle!
They grow on jungle tree trunks.
First they're cut in half . . .
. . . then the innards are scooped out.
Kandice scratched an abbreviated message on it (must have been hard to carve): Grama! ha-p da ♥ you! k amazon 2010.
Here's what the inside looks like. In Mexico we call these "Jícaras." They're used mostly for dipping water, but also as bowls for serving or eating food.
Kandice spent 3 months in Brazil, doing health work from a medical launch. She prepared and carved the gourd just for Grandma!
Another present - a fancy blouse.
And a genuine Mother love painting.
A Creative Memories Photo Panel of Mexico memories - from Lanita of course!
Close-up view of the Photo Panel.
I had fun taking videos, most of the time using the camera mounted on a Gorillapod sitting on my lap. I captured frames from the video for many of the photos in this album.
After the presents were opened, Daddy had an announcement. "My wife will no longer have to be on the other end of the two-man chainsaw like you see on the photo display board."
After 56 years on the other end of the chainsaw, she finally gets to "retire"!
There was plenty of laughter and applause over that one!
Meanwhile, Troy is folding the wrapping paper that Grandma so carefully removed from her presents.
"Hey, watcha doin' there Troy?"
Can't waste this perfectly good paper!
OK, all rolled up, ready to re-use!
"Very good Troy - can't waste this now!"
Since Lanita & daughters arrived late, they were hungry. Lanita dips into the leftovers - and Troy is still folding wrapping paper! Boots is in the middle of all the action in this corner.
Does it taste THAT bad?
Still stuffing her face - must not be too bad.
"Let's see - how did that picture turn out . . ."
The fun continues as Betty describes how Lanita was born in the car just a block away from the hospital.
Linda on the phone again, describing the events to a friend.
Kandice really got a kick out of some of the things written in the Memory Scrapbook, and read the funnier parts out loud for the rest of us to enjoy.
Kandice thought it was so funny that distant relative Budd Adams said he was attaching a photo to prove that he had remarried - and to keep Buck (my dad) off the roof!
"You should come see this!"
Scrapbook page from my mom's gradeschool teacher Irma Potterton.
Scrapbook message and photos from childhood friend Bea Coupland who knew my mom since age 9 at Camp Wawona!
Meanwhile, Gillian is being her artistic self.
Finished product.
And I'm still taking videos . . .
Mom expresses her appreciation for folks remembering her December birthday - the second party in her life!
Then she mentions two of her kids who also have December birthdays . . .
. . . and brings me a gift bag - my birthday is December 13.
Fritos! A yummy treat I don't get very often. And the bag says Happy Birthday in Spanish. Later at home she gave me the rest of my present - a nice warm flannel shirt.
Lanita's birthday is December 1.
"Oh, persimmons - I love them!"
"Thank you sooo much!"
"Look - a treat I don't get in Maine!"
"That's just a sample - I have a bunch more for you at home."
Everyone's havin' a jolly good time!
I really love it when Diana smiles at me like this!
KK & Kandice with Aunt Linda.
April: "How are ya doin' - gettin' tired yet?"
Dr. April Dawson also checks on Betty to be sure she isn't getting too tired out. Doing her doctorly duty!
Cousins Kandice & Emilia.
Now to get rid of some of that excess energy - a pileup!
Kandice on the bottom, then KK, Gillian and Emilia.
Don't they make a nice-looking "tree"?
One, two, three . . .
. . . JUMP!
That's fun!
And again!
Gillian can hover in the air . . .
. . . and Emilia can stand without her legs. What a fierce look on her face!
Back to Queta - she actially surprised some of us the day before by appearing in church.
Here she is as part of our family by our house in 1978. Lanita, Queta, Celian, Linda, Betty and Freddie.
Linda, Queta & Lanita at the edge of the cloud forest high on a mountain near where we lived in Chiapas, Mexico.
Back at the party, Queta and Lanita were soon yakking away together, just like old times!
Plenty of memories to laugh about!
Oh, te acuerdas cuando . . .
. . . y luego . . .
. . . si, era muy divertido . . .
¿Y tu? ¿Porque nos miras así?
Mira nomas . . .
. . . ¿lo crees?
Lanita: "Oh, remember that time when you were Freddie's alarm clock?"
Freddie: "Yes, I'd just returned from Bolivia. I was sleeping in my old bed, the one Lanita had been using. You quietly came into the room before dawn and shook me saying, 'Lanita! Wake up!'"
Queta: "Yes, then when you sat up, I was horrified! I ran out of there in a hurry!"
"How was I to know he was in the bed you normally sleep in!"
Freddie: "That's OK Queta - I didn't mind you shaking me awake!"
Queta: "Remember how we rode on the roof of your Yellow Car, singing away . . ."
Those were such fun times we enjoyed together!
Freddie: "Ellen, you still haven't written anything for the Memory Scrapbook."
Ellen: "Me? I haven't had the time."
"Been workin' from dawn to dusk, just been too busy"
Freddie: "You just haven't MADE the time!" Ellen: "I can only do so much!"
Freddie: "Well, I started writing some of mine last night." Ellen: "What? You mean YOU haven't finished yours either???"
"Why should I have mine done when YOU haven't finished yours?"
Eileen just sits there laughing at us.
Well, three weeks later, we're still waiting for her to find the time!
We siblings have a lot of fun together.
Diana keeps flashing those heart-melting smiles.
Dr. Linda is always bustling about, making sure everything is being taken care of - especially our dear parents.
Bye!
Here's what happens to crazy people who stick metal things into electrical sockets!
KK is a very sweet young lady.
Watch out for this 90-year-old "Dysfunctional Veteran"!
And Mom is always her caring, loving self. She shared her birthday flowers with an elderly shut-in friend that night, and leftover birthday cake with her neighbors.
The display board - Betty's life from babyhood to the present.
Following are a few photos from the display. Here Betty rides her tricycle and her brother Wes his red wagon in Redwood City.
Betty and Wes Landstrom
Betty by the family car. License plate says 1934.
Redwood City Adventist School students: Back: Lucille Walter, Dorothy Walter, Viola Walter, Ronald Tank, Wesley Landstrom, Warren Tooker. Front: Betty Landstrom, Norman Tank, ?, Raymond Tooker, Carl Huestes, ?.
Some of the same students 50 years later: Ronald Tank, BettyAdams, Lucille Walters-Thompson, Viola Walters-?, Norman Tank & Warren Tooker.
Warren & Marilyn Tooker. Warren claims to be the one who's known Mom the longest - since she was 7 years old!
Duane Tank is an old family friend from Elementary school days in Redwood City.
Irma Andrews Potterton is now 94 - she was my mom's teacher at the Redwood City Adventist gradeschool, and is still alive & active!
Betty Landstrom around age 16 while attending PUC Prep School in Angwin, California.
Betty graduating from Academy.
Betty Landstrom in college at PUC.
Miss Betty Landstrom at age 21, a teacher at Lakeport, California.
Celian & Betty Adams right after they eloped and got married in Flagstaff, Arizona. This is their only wedding photo.
Adams family at The Ranch in 1956. Celian holding baby Freddie with wife Betty & daughters Ellen & Eileen - officially June (or Boots) and Gloria.
Betty, Celian, Lanita, Linda and Freddie Adams by our cabin home at Colegio Linda Vista in Chiapas, Mexico - 1966.
Last full Adams family portrait at Linda Vista - May 3, 2010.
Celian taking Betty for a ride on his Harley at Linda Vista - April 1975.
We felt honored to celebrate the 80th birthday of our thoughtful, loving, self-sacrificing one-of-a-kind mother whom we all dearly love!
