BIRTHDAY!

clockwise from back: Randy, Marie, Ann

On Saturday we had a fun party with family and friends. My brother and sister were able to be there, as well as some of our family friends from Cadillac: Ann, Randy, and Marie.Some of his closest friends from little league to high school to college also came to celebrate my dad's big day.
In addition, one of his exchange students was able to find a ride up to Traverse City from the kindness in Laura's heart. She drove some of the exchange students up to do some fun winter activities so that Dimitar was also able to celebrate with my family, as well.

Mary, Ed, and Doug

The party was awesome. It started at around 12:30pm, and we went blowing past the 4pm finish time to about 6pm. My dad was alert and responsive the entire time. It was really fun to be near people who have known him from different times in his life because I got to hear a lot of stories. For example, my dad played a lot of baseball with the neighbor kids; their team was the "Delaware Punchies." Somehow they ended up playing ball against a prison team, and they got their butts whooped (figuratively, not literally). My dad was amazingly responsive to the stories -- he smiled or laughed at all the right times or nodded his head if someone asked if he remembered the story. There was also a story about a Chinese fire drill. I guess my dad used to drive a little Simca in high school, and at a stoplight he said, "Hey, let's do a Chinese fire drill!" The guys all ran around the car and got back into their regular spots, the light turned green, but the car didn't move; no one was in the driver's seat! One of the guys had to get out and drive the car over to my dad's house, where they saw him sitting on the front stoop laughing his fool head off. I guess the stoplight had been really close to my dad's house, so he had played a prank and had run all the way home.

Today, on his actual birthday, Ed, Mary, and Doug stopped by to celebrate. Ed visited in the morning, and Doug and Mary came a little later. My dad also had a lot of cards and messages (thank you, everyone!) and he was alert the whole time!

In the afternoon we also had a meeting at the Munson Hospice House and all decided that my dad will move there tomorrow.