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Never Too Old To Dream January 2007
'Tis the night before New Year's and all through the house Not a creature is stirring not even a mouse. It's just me, sitting reflectively in my study reviewing the past. Last year at Christmas I was in the hospital with pneumonia, but this season I'm bright and healthy and sending out my wishes for your best year ever!
Reflection One - Traveling A few weeks ago I spoke at a Christmas function in San Diego and then I flew off to NYC where I visited with Fred's brother Bill and his wife Virginia. I had come to speak for the Bee-Alive Company Christmas party. The executives sent a limousine to pick up Virginia and me. We went to visit their headquarters and enjoyed an elegant brunch and a tour of their impressive facility. Following our tour the chauffeur drove us to the NY Radio City Music Hall where we observed the exciting Christmas Spectacular while sitting in the 7th row. What was most rewarding was the nativity scene at the end. With all the attempts being made to take Christ out of Christmas, it was a thrill to see the whole cast come to worship Jesus and sing Away in a Manger and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. The audience rose in a standing ovation and we wept with tears of joy: Jesus is still the reason for the season. Two days later we were picked up again for the Bee-Alive company party. We were taken to a hotel where they presented us and their entire staff with a buffet dinner and entertainment. I concluded the festivities with a customized version of Silver Boxes. The Bee-Alive staff women are charming, engaging and hospitable and by using their skin care products I'm looking younger already.
In the
evening we adjourned to my home where we dined on
Prime Rib and finished with Kristy's family recipe
for chocolate mousse.
Marita and Chuck enjoyed Christmas in Grand Cayman.
Reflection Two - Speaking Women often come up to me and ask, "How long do you intend to keep this up?" They expect me to give them a date for my finale but I always reply, "As long as someone asks me and I can get there." This year enough have asked me to keep me busy and I've been able to get there. My sister-in-law Virginia accompanied me to Calgary Canada for a conference in Banff and also came along to Erfurt in East Germany for a business convention. My friend Tammy Bennett joined me on another trip to Canada for an appearance on the 100 Huntley Street TV program and also a Women Who Worship Conference in New Brunswick. In October I worked with the same organization in Halifax. where my mother was born. After the event, Tammy and I took a few days off in Boston and even went to Haverhill where I was able to show Tammy the real store where I grew up. We also visited my high school sweetheart whom I had not seen in almost 60 years. It was my birthday and Donald Gordon presented me with a cake that had my picture embedded in the frosting! You may have seen such an invention but for me it was a first! The next day Tammy and I flew to Evansville, IN where I spoke to a group of cancer survivors. Tammy also traveled with me to Budapest Hungary where I spoke for a business group. We had hotel rooms overlooking the Blue Danube and stayed for a few days extra to tour the area. The same company wants me to come to Romania in March and I expect to be speaking in several cities in Australia in August. Can you see that if you ask, I'll try to get there?
Reflection Three - Writing In our spare
time, what little there is of it, we three Littauer
Ladies have been writing up a storm. The three
Lauren's husband Randy has his first book out showing his collection of postcards of the city of Redlands, CA, it is fascinating.
Last week the moment came that all authors dream of. I was standing in the Las Vegas airport bookstore. I spotted Communication Plus, which is exciting enough by itself, but at that moment a lady reached out and picked it off the shelf. I couldn't resist saying, "You'll really like that book." As she turned to look at me I smiled and said, "I wrote it!" We became instant best friends and as I stood autographing the book another lady came by and saw what we were doing and bought one too, "as long as you'll autograph it to my mother." Marita has also written Praying Wives Club and Tailor-Made Marriage. I have a new book, Silver Linings: Breaking Through the Clouds of Depression, a revised version of How to Get Along With Difficult People and a new cover on Personality Plus which has sold over 1,000,000 copies and has been translated into 25 languages! So you can see we have all been busy!
Reflection Four - Dreaming Back in 1950 when I had my 1st job right out of college, I bought a recording machine which produced 78 rpm records. My brother Ron, then in high school, and already a disc jockey on our local station, interviewed any willing customer that came into the store for his Saturday morning radio program on WHAV. He and his friend Dave would play records, talk, sing, interview and play the trumpet. When Jim was home from college he and I would sing and I even played the piano for all of us to perform. This phase passed, but it was the birth of Ron's career as he ultimately became the top radio personality in Dallas and even has a Southwest Airline plane named for him. I had not thought of these records in years until my last move when I opened a box of books we had been shipping unopened along with us for 50 years. I decided to look the books over before throwing them out and much to my amazement at the bottom of the box I found this stack of home-made 78's. Ron took them to a professional in Dallas who transferred the old music to CD's. What a touch of nostalgia to listen to our voices from 1950. When I heard myself singing "Farewell to Bay State But Not Goodbye" I realized how grateful you all must be that I went into speaking instead of singing. In the past year my brother, Jim, has been battling prostate cancer. He still looks great and has his engaging sense of humor. The church in Bath, Ohio where he had been their minister for 16 years decided to honor his 50 years of Christian service as an Air Force chaplain and then their pastor. He called the event a Pre-funeral, set so he could enjoy the eulogies while still alive to hear them. The Sunday
morning service was packed with people who love Jim
as pastor and friend. His daughter, Cindy, with a
doctorate from Harvard, is an associate professor
of Old Testament at Oberlin College. She did the
Scripture readings from Isaiah 6:1-8, the same
passage that was read at his ordination 50 years
ago. Her sister, Laurel, pastor of The First
Congregational Church in Rockford, Michigan,
presented with pathos and humor the story of Jim's
life. Following the two daughters, Jim's wife,
Carolyn, who had "So thank you my friends Our pathways soon may part And if I grow too old to dream Your love will live in my heart."
So how long will I go on
speaking? Until I grow too old to dream or nobody
asks me!
With Dreams Of An Exciting Future For Us All,
Florence Littauer |
For
our personal Christmas day Lauren and her family
and I enjoyed a festive time at the home of Fred
and Kristy. There is nothing more exciting than
watching children opening their presents. Four-year
-old Lianna Marita got everything Disney had
created in their Princess Line and with her
choleric personality she is ready to rule the
world. All Hail Princess Lianna. Little one-year
old Jack took great pleasure in ripping off the
bows and crunching up the paper. What was inside
was secondary.
of
us produced a book, 
been his co-pastor for an interim ministry,
expressed her joy as his partner in life and in
Christian service. By this time we were all
emotionally wrung out but there was more! Jim rose
from his seat in the front row, stepped up to the
pulpit chair on the platform and sat smiling at all
of us. He reached in his pocket, pulled out a
lavaliere microphone and said, "I always carry one
of these with me in case I'm called upon to say a
few words." His humor relaxed us all and he began
his self-eulogy. In sharing his life he told of the
record-making machine I had bought and how he
remembered his favorite song, "When I Grow too Old
to Dream." He pointed to his grandchildren in the
audience and said, "When I was young like you I
never thought I'd get old but now…" Suddenly
the 1950 recording of his voice came over the loud
speaker. "When I grow too old to dream I'll have
you to remember." At the end of the 1st verse and
chorus, a female voice came on for the 2nd verse. I
gasped audibly. It was me! Then we heard ourselves
sing the chorus together as the music faded away.
As I sat in a surprised state of shock Jim went on
with the story of his life tied to the theme of
never expecting to grow old. He held us spell-bound
with his tales and surprised us again as he
concluded by bursting into song with his still
strong voice,
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