Muze

Ocracoke native, Muzel Bryant, celebrated her 101st birthday on March 12, the day before I returned home from my off-island trip. I visited her last night for about an hour. She told me of the many neighbors who had stopped by for cake and ice cream. I asked her if she had a limo ride like she did last year. She laughed and shook her head.

Muze asked me how Amy & David & Lachlan were doing. I promised to bring Lachlan by when they get home in April. Muze wondered if I had heard anything from her friend Cristal lately. And she wanted to know how my Aunt Thelma is doing. Muze likes to keep up to date about friends and neighbors.

Later, talk turned to other, more remote, times. The winter of 1917-1918 when Pamlico Sound froze over, the 1918 flu epidemic, Ocracoke's short-lived Artist's Colony of 1939-1940, and Ocracoke during WWII.

When I left I assured her I'd be back for a visit before too long, definitely before her next birthday. She wondered aloud if she'd be around for yet another birthday and laughed when I reminded her that none of us knows if we'll be around for another birthday. We can only hope, and, meanwhile, enjoy the present. Muze agreed.

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