Growing up, I regarded a few of my parents’ friends as a cast of characters; some of whom had a larger than usual influence on my life.
Marlene Lenski was irreverent and intimidating; and thus very, very mysterious to me. Judge Robert Stadler quizzed me on words, what books I was reading and hung around for the answers, just like Atticus Finch of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
And then there was Alice Hastings, who seemed to walk right out of a fairy tale, her beauty and manner so perfect, a quality I found unparalleled but one which I think at times could vex my mother.
I distinctly remember one summer day when Alice “popped by.”
My mother came in from working in the yard. Red-faced. Damp.
While Alice looked as if she’d just come from a Better Homes & Garden photo shoot. She smelled of lilacs. My mother, weed killer.
Alice Garcelon Lincoln Hastings turns 100 Saturday.
Today, she is a somewhat diminished version of herself. And yet, what have always been her best qualities shine through even more.
It’s not that Alice hasn’t faced challenges, but that she has seemed able to keep them from overwhelming her.
A few simple things keep her anchored today. Family. A peaceful view out her window. Reading. And maintaining a grateful nature.
Alice is a six-year resident at Heartland Meadows, an assisted living care facility, where she resides in a simple and spare room.
“I don’t miss a thing,” she said of the transition from her longtime home in the Meadowbrook subdivision, where her favorite room — an expansive screened-in porch — looked out over a field.
“I don’t need to be there. I’ll see it in my mind forever,” she said.
She looks around her room and smiles.
“I have everything I need here. I’m just as pleased and happy as I can be,” she said.
