Life and such: Mom's Reunion Day 3/Last Day

I had set my alarm so that I could get up and help mom get ready for her maybe marching in the traditional Smith Alumnae parade. Color me red when I got out of bed and discovered that mom was long gone already! I guess she either got up on her own or others of her class got her up. I found her at breakfast with some of her classmates. One of them offered her their spare wheelchair (which she only uses when she is really, really, really tired - I mean the woman told us that she walks three miles a day!). Little did we know that Smith also had wheelchairs (and pushers) available.

Mom and her cohorts all girded their loins (so to speak) and off we went. The march wasn't all that far - interestingly done: oldest people first so they had to march the furthest. Sort of understandable I guess, then again, counter-intuitive. There was one member of the class of 37 who got to ride on a golfcart! The other classes folded through the younger classes following a marching band made up of people mostly in their 50s it seemed. Odd. Anyway, everyone marched to a sea of chairs where a meeting of the Alumnae Club was convened. Lots of talking about money donated, class participation etc. I basically lolled around. At the very end of the event, the Smith n' Poofs performed again. Yay! (Saw them later that day - I swear they were following me!)

Back to the dorm briefly before it was time to head to lunch and more speeches. Juliet appeared and said that she had decided to leave and not stay for the dinner and the light show. I was sad, cause I was looking forward to another open bar, another decent meal and the sound and light show. Oh well. Not a biggie - I would get to sleep in my own bad at least! We agreed to meet at 3:30 at the dorm. While the class of '52 was talked to, I went back to the hotel and packed mom and me up. I put my stuff in my car and piled mom's up for easy retrieval. One of the dorm monitors, Rachel, who I had seen a couple of times the day before - offered to help tote when the time came. Just then, a woman came up and asked me if I was Renée's son. Sure enough, I was. Mom had escaped and tried to lead a general revolt, but succeeded in only liberating a couple of her classmates from the torture of the dean's hour long speech!

Mom had been desirous of visiting the Smith College Art Museum, of which she had memories from her school days. The building had been changed since her day - but some of the same works of art are still rotated for display. Yay nostalgia! We spent a good long while wandering through the four floors of the museum. Unsurprisingly, we ended up in the museum store buying cards!

Juliet arrived at 3:30, the car got packed (thank you Rachel!) goodbyes and such were shared and off we went - mom to Maine and me to Geneva. Yay!

I am going to post an album of all of the photos I took while at the reunion (with some judicious editing of atrocious pictures) on my facebook page. When that happens, I will post a link in the blog as well. Please, no breath holding!