HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOTHER...91 YEARS OLD

My mother is ninety one years old today! She has lived a
long and varied life by any standard that we put out
there.

During her life, she has travelled, had adventures that we only dream of.

At the age of 52 yrs old, she packed up her belongings and moved to the British Virgin Islands.

There with very little money, she opened a beach bar, known simply as "Jill's Beach Bar". The beach bar consisted of a long bar, with a grill at one end and the liquor area at the other. She served killer lobster sandwiches which she more or less became famous because they were so good, and served the best Pina Coladas to go with it!

The photo on the right there is one of my favourite photos as it epitomizes the classy way my mother always dressed. She has loved clothes all of her life and was very very particular about dressing. Even now, in a nursing home, I must be careful that everything that she has must match and be easy
to mix with everything else. It's a task, as I'm not at all
like my mother in dress style.

But oh, I love this outfit she has on, look at the shoes
and the turbin with matching purse...does it not remind

you of the old black and white movies where everyone
had such style?

So the very tropical scene on the right is the view my mother had from her beach bar for almost 20 years of her life.

She met many famous people, many people that just loved going to her beach bar, and even Jimmy Buffet used to bring his guitar and play for free on Sunday afternoons while his boat the first "Savannah Jane" was at anchor!

There is a story that Hamburger in Paradise comes from this little beach he loved so much!

Nowadays, no one could possibly go, with about $2,000.00 life savings in their pocket and do what she did. For many years my mother and I have travelled to this island, sat on this beach and remissed about her life in the simpler times, before the huge cruise ships, when only sailors would arrive, before the internet, when the roads were hardly passable to come over the mountain to her paradise!

I view myself, along with my daughter Kelly, as the keeper of her memories!

Happy Birthday to a grand old lady.