The crowd was even more chatty and energetic than normal this Monday morning at Blackbird. You would have thought the local kids were off from school. Laughing, singing, playing tunes, and moving the chairs and tables around to fit the continually growing group, they took over the place.
They were here to celebrate and appreciate their "Fearless Leader," Evelyn Bradshaw, who turned 93 yesterday. Birthday Queen today, she leads the Valpo YMCA's AquaNastics class by duty and love. "I just love it. In 1993 I started taking the class and took charge of it over time," Bradshaw shared with me. "12 to 16 people participate and we have fun.
The appreciation they all had for her was as big as the kidding their camaraderie generated. Of Evelyn, they commented:
"It's a long story."
"That's the burden of leadership."
"That's the way you want to live."
"When you're 93 you don't go to the bars anymore, you go to the Blackbird Cafe."
Jim Cullen, who many of us have seen play harmonica at the YMCA, even led the group in a Monday morning rendition of Happy Birthday with all of Evelyn's friends.
On a day that I have an interview scheduled with a 100 year old woman in Valpo at Rittenhouse, it was just good fortune to happen upon this positive surprise to warm up my morning.
Evelyn - Congratulations; Mary - thanks for making Blackbird such a welcome place for GOOD stuff to happen; and to the rest of the group that I met this morning - thanks for being "splashtastic!"