Aunt Milly in her pretty and sunny apartment.
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Aunt Milly and Sharon sharing family photos, including Lithuania.
Sharon and I flew into The Southwest Florida airport in Fort Meyers. It's great - rather small - and you walk out to the rental cars right there. We got a brand-new car. With all of 5 miles on the odometer. Florida is nice to us old ladies.
Man, the warm and soft Florida air. Nothing like it. It was a quick and easy drive down to Naples. We even found our way into the motel parking area with only a few tours of other lots. Nice room, work-out room, pool, and good breakfasts.
Sharon called Milly and made arrangements for tomorrow. We took a scenic tour of the strip malls of East Naples before we found the place to get our evening snacks. Then found a crab shack, right over the water of Naples Bay, where I learned to eat crab legs. I may never be the same again!
The next morning, we were off to Terracina Grande to visit our aunt.|
Aunt Milly in her pretty and sunny apartment. . |
Aunt Milly and Sharon sharing family photos, including Lithuania. |
Aunt Milly's friend Louise, and the cute pup Pebbles, in their apartment. |
Aunt Milly in the dining room at lunch. |
We enjoyed meeting Aunt Milly's friend Louise. She is not only a nice person, she has had quite the interesting life. And does some incredible artwor. Especially 3-dimensional pictures, decorated bird houses, and dioramas. And Pebbles is the sweetest and littlest pup.
Aunt Milly's apartment is on the third floor, with big windows letting in all that Florida sunshine, Terracina Grand is quite a nice place. Rather posh, even. There are little alcoves with comforatble chairs, tables, and things to do tucked in all over. Chess, games, puzzles, books, magazines, popcorn machine. We liked the central lounge where you can get - and read - your mail or just schmooze. And the dining room was large and comfortable - well laid-out. Don't know about the breakfasts and dinners, but the lunches were great. Salads, sandwiches, fruits, ice cream.... And jsut the right size portions so we enjoyed them without feeling stuffed. Man, the choices as we age up sure are better than they were for our grandparents.
After a lovely afternoon, we headed back to the motel. I swam, with several kids, whose parents said it was too cold for them. One kid pointed at me and said, "If she can be in her, you can!" Good for an old-age pensioner to set an example. Then our cocktails. And off for a lovely dinner up in North Naples (malls, hotels, offices, apartments - but definitely not strip-mall stuff). I got to have liver and onions! Honest, a favorite that no one else wants at home.
And back to see Aunt Milly again the next day. After lunch, we went onto a patio to enjoy the soft Florida afternoon.
Nancy & Milly. . |
Sharon & Milly. Notice that they decided to be twins. |
We had a ball! Aunt Milly has tons of stories about the family that we'd never heard. And details about the ones we had. We especially liked learning about when she and our mothers were growing up. Although she refused to give me any dirt on my mother. There had to be some. But Aunt Milly swears there isn't. But she had enough information to keeps us interested - and mostly laughing. We were glad to learn that the family was definitely not poor. Well, as I kid, and based on the stories - and Social Studies lessons - we all read in the '50s, I assumed that their living in an apartment meant they were too poor to afford a house. Not true. They had a very comfortable life. And we learned about Milly's violin playing, Bab's singing career, and my mother's swing band.
The last evening, we went into "old" Naples - downtown - and walked around. It's lovely - reminded me of Coconut Grove. Some rather posh shops with beautiful wares. A real jazz band in a little club where we sat out on the sidewalk to listen. And lots of restaurants and pubs. We celebrated with steaks.
Naples is a neat place. And Aunt Milly is still so much fun. We sure hope to go visit her again - soon.
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