January 11, 2022 — Do you know someone who plays fast and loose with their age? Or might that someone be you!? 😉

So many of you are so good about sending Cardie Oma Hannlis birthday cards that you’ll likely remember last fall she turned 98. In the years I’ve known her, it’s been great fun to watch people interact with that whippersnapper, working up the nerve to ask her how old she is. H says she’s never understood why anyone would lie about their age. “I’ve loved life so much that I wouldn’t want to cut out a single day!”

My mother, on the other hand … When I wrote in last Friday’s cardie newsletter about being in ER with Mom following her stroke in 2005, I only told you half the story. I was saving the other half to share today as it is the story of how this fun new card message came to be.

Mom had been stuck on a gurney for at least five hours when over walked a nurse to take her vitals. A big guy, I’d guess he was around 50, with a bit of belly stretching his green scrubs. He took Mom’s hand and in vintage Long Island asked, “How auld are ya, dawl?”

Having been sitting by her side this whole time — asking, waiting and wishing for someone to come take proper care of her — I was already fit to be tied. So I’m sure I sounded like the snippy eldest daughter I was at the time when I said, “Perhaps you have not noticed that your patient has suffered a stroke and cannot speak. So I will speak for her and say that my mother is 82.”

Mom began rolling her head side-to-side and voiced a slurred yet quite distinct, “Noooo.” As the nurse side-eyed me, I sighed and tried, “My mother will be 83 in August.” To that, Mom emitted an even more vehement, “Noooo!”

At this point, there was no way I could suppress my grin and great pride. After all she had been through that day and long night, despite how fearful and helpless she must have felt by this time, Mom was still steadfastly Mom.

“My mother,” I said, “is 34.”

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative