Meeting Helen

Tonight we picked Helen up from the Chase Hotel downtown, brought her back here to see the Christmas lights and then we went to dinner at Cafe Scandia. For those of you who don't know, Helen stayed with us for 5 months when we first moved to Palm Springs in 2000. She was our very first guest to arrive and our last to leave. She arrived the week after we moved in and she left on the Tuesday before we became Chaps Inn on Good Friday 2001. She is from Nu Joyzee and is now 102!!! Yes, one hundred and two years old and still visiting Palm Springs almost every year since 1976. She flies out here by herself (first class of course). She is an inspiration to us all. She still goes gambling at the casino but has given up her beloved evening Manhattans due to diabetes. I think if I were ever live to be 102, screw the diabetes and give me a Manhattan.

You would never believe how this small frail old lady can eat!!! Soup, salad and lamb chops AND she ate her fair share of chocolate cake. Screw the diabetes!!! She has outlived most of her relatives, her dear niece Mitzi died last year. Mitzi was 85!!!