the mirth of Mutt

Last Saturday night, four generations of the Brown family gathered at the Pie in the Sky restaurant in Franklin, Tennessee, to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. Actually, this was a triple birthday party, since both my Dad and my niece, Olivia, also had birthdays the week of Thanksgiving. We were all disappointed that my Mom couldn't be with us, since she was hospitalized for five nights during the Thanksgiving holidays, but we took lots of pictures for her.

In advance of Mutt's birthday - we call my grandmother Mutt because my Dad couldn't say Mother when he was a toddler, and that's what he called her - I had contacted dozens of family members and friends and asked them to send me humorous stories about Mutt. My grandmother is a consummate storyteller - a true raconteur - so it was only fitting that we honor this milestone birthday with stories. The resulting collection, which I titled "The Mirth of Mutt," reveals just how resourceful, generous, thoughtful, funny, and unflappable my grandmother is. Many of the stories reference incidents that occurred during the three decades that she ran the Hospital Flower Shop. 

Here's one of the classic tales that was submitted by one of her friends: "Hattie Lou told me to go to Fred's Dollar Store and pick up a plastic pink princess telephone. I stood there with my mouth open and finally asked, 'Why? She replied that the family of lady who had died wanted a pale pink ribbon on a funeral spray that said, 'Jesus called and sister answered,' and she wanted a pink telephone to place in the center of the spray."