A Crowley Celebration of Longevity

She was surrounded by people.  Except for a rare occasional visitor, this now only occurred once a year. On her birthday.

It was Rachel Compton's 105th, and dozens of people were gathered at the Crowley Baptist Retirement Village in order to celebrate.  They included children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren (even one great-great grandchild thanks to fifteen year old Josie Evans).  There were also town dignitaries like Mayor Terry Caldwell, and Violet Ridge, the reporter for the Crowley Gazette.  And there were many of the residents of the retirement village, including Crowley's next oldest resident, 102 year old Mattie Goodkind.

There had been a story each year on Rachel ever since she hit her centennial birthday.  Centenarians were rare in Crowley, and she quickly became a legend of longevity.  Her full name was Sarah Rachel Crowley (her maiden name - yes, her family went back that far) Franks Steel Compton, having kept the last names of each of her three husbands.  Robert Franks died at 43 when Rachel was just 37, collapsing at the County fair from a massive heart attack.  Tommy Steel died at 67 when Rachel was 61, having been run over by his own tractor while trying to get it started,.  Then she married Grover Compton, who died at 99 with emphysema and pneumonia (smoking finally caught up with him), and Rachel was just 87.  She had spent the remaining years alone.

Seven years ago, aging children decided to move her to the Crowley Baptist Retirement Village,  Over those years they came to see her less and less.  Her only frequent visitor in the last three years was Franny Goodkind, who was not a relative but was actually coming by to see Mattie.  But Mattie could be cantankerous and Franny found herself actually spending more time with Rachel.  Franny enjoyed the colorful tales of the past that Rachel would weave, more so than her own great-grandmother's stretches of silence punctuated by her berating Franny for not bringing in more contraband, like chewing tobacco and chocolate.

When Rachel turned 100, Violet interviewed her for the Gazette and asked her what her secret for longevity was.  She pulled Violet in close and whispered to her, "Hush now!  I think they forgot about me." The paper ran something instead about clean living and prayer.

She had children by both Franks (three boys and a girl)  and Steel (two boys and a girl), and four of the seven had predeceased her.  One of them, Rebecca Cooper, was an 86 year old resident of the retirement village herself.  Tabitha and Racine Steel, daughters of her grandson Grant, were there.  Racine was there in all her blond, gorgeous perfection, but she couldn't entice her boyfriend Bobby Ray to come.  The boy that was incredibly sweet on her, Adam Garnett, was there, and even had brought Rachel roses.  Racine was friendly with Adam, and Adam of course interpreted that for more than what it was.  Franny, who was infatuated with Adam in turn, looked at them with a melancholy shyness.  She did not know how to break through to Adam while he was blinded by Racine.

Rachel had been completely mobile until the last two years.  But recently she had been unable to get out of her wheelchair.  Her mind was still good, although sometimes she would slur her words in a way that made her hard to understand.  Franny, however, listened carefully to her, got used to the way she said things, and understood every word Rachel said.

Rachel was wheeled in front of a table that held a huge birthday cake that said, "Happy 105th, Rachel" and had a picture of her favorite cartoon strip characters, Pogo and Albert the Alligator, cavorting in a swamp.  Her eyes widened when she saw it, but that had been her only reaction that day.  "Time to blow out the candles, Grammer!", encouraged Tabitha, who was standing by the left side of her.  On the other side was Franny, and her and Rachel were holding hands.

Sarah Rachel Crowley Franks Steel Compton reared back slightly and took a huge gulp of air.  Everyone waited for the exhale.  It did not come.  Instead she pitched forward, landing directly into the cake.  She had breathed her last, the frosted pictures of Pogo and Albert smeared on her face.

As the horrified crowd weeped and struggled to find medical care for the deceased Rachel, the new oldest resident of Crowley, 102 year old Mattie Goodkind, turned to the woman in the wheelchair next to her, 97 year old Grace MacDonald and said, "Well, believe you me, my 105th is going to have a lot more dignity than THAT!"