This cute little thing is my Great-Grandmother Adeline McCormick Pearson, born on leap day 1896..... She lived to the ripe old age of 103 or as she liked to tell us 24..... She only had 24 real birthdays and once I was 24 she would tell me how we were the same age, but I think my grandma may still be going with 29 and I foresee I will play this same game someday. She was the cutest thing ever, just look at those pearls. I wish I knew where my grandpa took this picture, it looks like it could be a street in Paris. She would tell me all the time how she had been engaged a whopping 8 times. She was married only once, to my great grandpa Nick who traveled the world as an engineer and his favorite place to visit was, you guessed it Paris! I thought her 8 engagements were so exciting and scandalous but she never liked to talk about it. But I did later get it out of her, she was a nurse for the army and would meet many solders and before they went off to war, they would ask her to marry them, she would say "well how could I say no." I still like the idea that she was quite the catch to all these men way back when, I mean look at her!
Her name was Adeline but we called her Mickey, recently I asked my grandmother why we called her Mickey, her maiden name was McCormick so Mickey evolved from there and it was pretty adorable and fitting for her. Growing up I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and Mickey for which I thank my lucky stars every single day. I recall times at the beach with Mickey and she would tell me when she was a little girl she didn't have paper dolls like we did at that time and they had to cut them out of the newspaper and she would have to make clothes out of paper. Thinking this was the strangest idea as a 7 year old, she and I sat there cutting out ladies from magazines and making them clothes.
Mickey was an excellent cook and would make the best clam chowder and it had to be so hot you would burn your mouth on it, and always top it with a pat of butter. But her mac and cheese was the stuff of dreams, but as a 8 year old visiting her great grandmother you want the mac and cheese out of the blue box and the package of powder cheese. What I would give for her macaroni and cheese today. The closest thing I have ever found is the Martha's Mac & Cheese.
She lived in an apartment until she was 100 years old, and on one occasion she made dinner and my grandparents and I went, because you never missed a chance to have her cooking. As we ate the mac and cheese we wondered what the new addition of the little dark spots were. My grandpa looked at me and said, they are bugs from the flour, don't say anything just eat it, they won't kill you. It is one of my most vivid memories as a kid and one of the last times I think we had her amazing mac and cheese. I would go back to that moment to have her and my grandpa here today, bugs in the mac and cheese and all!
Happy birthday Mickey! We miss you every single day