We’ve lived here for about 8 years now. I believe that during that time, 10 of us still live here who lived here when we moved in! That is actually very remarkable! Several of us women started a Red Hat Society chapter called the Royal Red Divas! The Red Hat Society is a national women’s group based on the idea of remembering/learning again to play and enjoy life after 50! We dress in red hats and purple outfits, and sometimes wear lots of bling or even boas! Younger women can and do belong and they are called pink hatters who wear lavender clothes until they reduate at age 50! Our group has been meeting monthly now for almost 8 years. Its how I got to know a lot of my neighbors, although not all our members are from this neighborhood by any means! But in thinking about the stability of our cul-de-sac, I realize that we had 5 Red Hat members who lived on the street behind us just 8 years ago, and now there are none from that street, one died and was buried in her Red Hat Regalia, as I want to be, and the other four all moved away! We miss them terribly.

         Our Royal Divas are meeting across the street this coming Monday night, and I am so excited about it! I miss this group of fun loving women when we are not together, and I flat out enjoy them when we are together…telling jokes, dancing, laughing, visiting, seeing shows, whatever we want to do! I haven’t told you I don’t think, but I am somewhat handicapped. I have a serious heart condition which keeps me from walking very far at all, so I use a wheelchair to go outside or to a store, etc. I will tell you more in another chapter, but I had gone backwards last January, and growing increasingly weaker and falling often, was no longer able to go into friends’ s homes or drive, or hardly even get my own shower and bath rituals! It was frightening and humbling even more than I had already experienced. But I have recovered some of my health lately, and last week my physical therapist took me over to my neighbor’s house and taught me how to climb the 5 steps up to her porch and get into her house! She and her husband were there cheering me on! Now you know why I am so excited to go to Red Hat on Monday. Its a major outing for me and I can hardly wait.