This month my grandmother will turn 99.  She still lives on her own nearby the rest of my family and does quite well.  She is always one of the first to "like" any of our statuses on Facebook, and keeps up on any of the additional goings on in the family through a shared app on her iPad.  She plays "Words with Friends."  Let's just say that if the WiFi goes out at Grandma's house, it's akin to an emergency.  She will call somebody and get that thing fixed in short order.  Some of us grandkids were talking about how awesome she is with technology and my brother informed me that Grandma had explained to him that she wasn't really all that talented, she just had "FOMO."  When I stared at him blankly my brother then explained to me that "FOMO" was an urban text abbreviation for "fear of missing out."  Ha!  So in honor of the birthday of one of the classiest and smartest ladies I am privileged to know, I would like to tell you a bit of her and my grandpa's story...

There is nothing quite like good friends and neighbors.  I am blessed beyond measure to have this sweet couple close by.  Meet local flower farmers John and Vickie Cooper.

Meet Alison: a young and talented children’s author and illustrator. 
​Alison draws and paints beautiful pictures that inspire the imagination to dream.  

​I got to know Audrey a few short weekends ago when a cherished mutual friend of ours got married.  

​Grandpa is 89 years old.  A couple of months ago he had a nasty bout with a case of double pneumonia.  He was hospitalized for several days, and required having fluid drained off his lungs.  He had made it home on oxygen and was reading the “funny papers” when I called to thank him for a package of grapefruit he and Grandma had sent me.  Delicious grapefruit I might add.  One of my favorites.  “That’s the last part of the paper I read,” he explained to me in regards to the comics.  I smiled as I remembered that my brother and I used to rifle through the Sunday newspaper hunting those comics and then sprawl out on the floor on the carpet and take turns reading sections of them, occasionally bursting into laughter as we went. 
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Grandpa asked me what was new, so I told him that at that time we were expecting several little lambs soon.  “We used to have sheep.  That was a long time ago,” Grandpa replied.  My ears perked up.  I had no idea that my grandfather’s family used to keep sheep.  So, I asked him to tell me about it.  What follows is indeed not at all what I was expecting.  I liken it to a cross between a really sad Hallmark movie and an old western, one rife with strife, guns, and the law of the west.  (Well, mid-west in this case) It is truly an unbelievable tale as well as a piece of history.  My own family history to be exact.