One of A Kind

How many times in a lifetime does a person turn 30 on the 30th? Only once, of course. And not everybody can do that. We in the Schiess family, proud to say, have a person who can do it and is doing it this very day.

It's Ann, or--pardon me, Ann--our baby. On this rainy October 30, 2009, our baby is 30. That's my view of it. For her part, she leaves her twenties behind forever. But 30. That makes a person sound solid, serious, stable, more so than twenty-something. Right?

It was not raining the day Ann was born. We could look out the windows of that Caldwell hospital and see sunshine. At least that's how I remember it. I'm not much for omens, but if I were, that would be a good one. Either way, rain or shine, Ann has been sunshine in our lives ever since the moment of her birth.

She was, as my mother would say, a cute little rig. She is still cute but has grown out of being a rig and into being a statuesque and lovely woman. Lovely she just is, and I say 5'9" is statuesque. Certainly Ann is taller than her mother who always wished to be be tall because Wayne was tall. So, obviously, Ann gets her height from her dad.

She gets her wit and wisdom and cleverness from . . . well, I'd say it has two sources:

1. she brought a lot of it with her in her genes
2. life experience has provided her with the rest.
   

Today Ann is still our child, but she is no child. No. Today Ann is a grown-up, in spite of or because of being the baby in the family with six siblings. My recollection is that they all loved her a lot.

But besides that, she's a college graduate; a natural-born teacher; a smart person; really good writer; veteran of some interesting work places and survivor of that one place whose name escapes me with the weird, controlling dr who was her boss; wife and partner of Jeremy; mom of two great boys and of one coming that might be a girl (it could happen, you know); maker of bread and Halloween costumes and jam and many good foods; good friend; former property manager/psychological counselor (and survivor of that); reader and thinker; all-around dependable person.

I love her. I know her dad loves her just the same as he did that day he held her on his shoulder and they both fell asleep. Aren't we glad to have a picture of that?

We have always been proud of her. Always.

Happy Birthday, Ann.