Can you believe it’s your 138th birthday?? I bet you thought I forgot. And I bet you could never have imagined that one of your great granddaughters would be celebrating your birthday today, much less celebrating it by posting in a blog on the internet. But I think you would love this!

Oh, and I want to thank you for all the photos, letters and journals you left behind. I came into this world almost exactly one year after you left so I’m grateful for these gifts – and the gift of learning more about you and your world.

This is one of my favorite photos of you, by the way. The one that makes me wish we could have spent some time together. I’m not sure what you’re up to – but I have a feeling it was fun.

I think my favorite journal entry so far is this one – where you had a few late-night beers, danced to fiddle tunes over the radio and reminisced about George dancing the cake-walk. And my favorite letter is this one from George – where he referenced the song “Only One Girl in the World For Me”. I tear up every time I play that tune.

And just one more thing. I want to share something fun that happened to me the other day. A woman doing research about someone who grew up in Marysville came across this blog and contacted me. She was primarily interested in some of your historic Marysville photos – but after a little research, I found out that the woman she was researching took choir and piano lessons from you when she was a little girl!  I’m sure you remember her – Annie Larson? And you probably also remember that she went on to receive her nurse’s training at St. John’s Hospital in Helena. Because of you, I was able to provide the researcher with several fun journal entries and even a photo of Mary’s mother, Theresa.

And there’s more! After leaving Montana, Anne Larson Zimmerman went on to become very successful and prominent in her field. Here are just a few of her accomplishments –

• 1973: served as a delegate representing the U.S. at the World Health Conference in Geneva, Switzerland
• 1976-1978: president of the American Nurses Association
• 1997: named as a “Living Legend” by the American Academy of Nursing

Her other accomplishments are too numerous to list here but when she died in 2003, there was a beautiful obituary in the Helena paper. Oh, and one more thing – in 1998, the American Nurses Foundation established the Anne Zimmerman Scholarship endowment fund, which helps contribute to the education of new generations of nurses. Education. I know that word is near and dear to you and I like to think you played a part in Annie’s education.

Well, Mary dear, I hope you have a wonderful birthday wherever you may be. And later, I plan to have a beer in your honor. Cheers!

PHOTO CREDIT: “Ten birthday cake candles against a white background,” CanStockPhoto (http://www.canstockphoto.com/images-photos/birthday-cake.html#file_view.php?id=4485152 : uploaded by RuthBlack 17 Sept 2010; downloaded 03 Mar 2016)