When you get an invitation to go to a 100th birthday party, you don’t turn it down.
In my case, it was a Tuesday when I found out. The party was on that Thursday and it was also 100 miles away and would require jumping on a plane in the middle of the work week. But, of course, you never turn down a 100th birthday party.
So, Courtney and I flew out to Elim to cover Eliza’s birthday bash, and what a party it was. An auditorium bustling with people, a line of tables filled with traditional native dishes, and a smiling Eliza greeting person after person with a hug and kiss.
We had met Eliza in her home earlier that day for an interview, and she had greeted us so warmly as she did each person who visited her. We were strangers in the middle of a powerful family reunion. I found myself fumbling with my recorder and getting tangled in cords, trying my best to not be in the way as relatives arrived by plane or snow machine and rushed over to greet the woman they had come to see.
We went around during the party asking “What’s your favorite memory with Eliza?” or “What has she taught you?” And throughout the day, we heard stories of her love for fishing, berry-picking and sewing. We heard about her generosity, humor and how much she values forgiveness.
Of course, all those stories helped us understand Eliza a little more. But even more telling were those pauses we cut out in post-production when people, clearly overwhelmed with love and admiration, stopped to gather their thoughts. More telling was the way someone’s eyes lit up when they told of the time Eliza went out fishing by herself or made them a pair of dog mittens. More telling was watching Eliza kiss her great-great-grand daughter surrounded by an entire community.
Those are the moments when you realize that a 100th birthday is not only about celebrating the sheer number of years one has lived, it’s also about celebrating the number of lives one has touched. How amazing is it that the way in which we choose to live our lives, and the fact that we even live at all, matters in the existence and future of others?
It just so happened a few days after returning from Elim, I celebrated my 23rd birthday (not as exciting as 100 years, I know). I thought a lot about all the existences that made mine possible, of all the lives that made mine better. There are too many to count (I tried!), but I am grateful to all of them, especially all the lives that are intersecting with mine here in Nome. And I thought a lot about Eliza, a woman I was fortunate enough to cross paths with in a place I never thought I’d be. In just two days she taught me how to live this life a little bit better, and I couldn’t have asked for a better gift.
