Today is my Great Grandmother Meg’s 101st birthday - these are photos from her 100th birthday last January. We really snuck in the celebration of the century just before lockdown, thank goodness.

I called her yesterday to beat the rush (she’s got about a hundred kids, grandkids and great grandkids at this point probably). She was home by herself, picked up and said “just one minute till I sit down honey.” She can’t see hardly at all now, but her mind is still sharp as ever - she usually recognizes your voice right away when she answers the phone, though this time around she thought I was my mom for a few minutes (flattered). She’s already got her eyes on 102 when we can hopefully all celebrate together - “I’m working on it!”

Barack and Michelle’s birthday letter from her 96th on display with her other cards. That story is in the post I made on her 97th.

The Queen on her 100th birthday. Today, on her 101th, she’ll have shepherds pie and a cake, but they’re skipping the 101 candles (“Ted says it would burn the house down”).

GG was born in Duncan, BC (on Vancouver Island), in 1920, but her family was English. I have been deep into watching The Crown lately, so we talked about that for a while - I said I hadn’t ever really learned about the royal family and she just laughed at me.

“I’m Canadian, but my whole family is British - I don’t know how old I was when I quit talkin’ British. When I was about 30 my friend asked ‘what happened to your accent’ and I said ‘well the Americans took it.’” GG moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 1932 and has been there ever since.