The prospect of bad weather didn’t keep Floy Schwilling’s mother from coming to Emporia to celebrate her daughter’s 80th birthday anniversary.
Edna Lynn of Fort Collins, Colo., caught a ride to Emporia with another daughter, Myrna Schwindt, also of Fort Collins. They arrived at Schwilling’s house Thursday — 80 years to the day of Schwilling’s birth.
“She wanted to come really bad, but with the weather, we didn’t know,” Schwilling said during a public reception in her honor on Saturday afternoon in the First Congregational Church.
Lynn said she hadn’t thought much about the unusual circumstance that allowed a mother to attend her child’s 80th birthday party.
“She was kind of surprised I was even going to come,” said Lynn, who will turn 97 on March 23. “I don’t think I ever thought about it too much. I don’t think I ever worried about my age.”
She was, however, looking forward to her arrival here, and that anticipation made it difficult to relax.
“I was really excited about coming to (the party) and seeing the kids and everything,” Lynn said on Saturday. “I didn’t relax very good Thursday night. But last night, I slept like a log.”
Lynn made the 600-mile-plus trip from Colorado in relative ease.
“I took one little nap, laid down in the back seat,” Lynn said. “It was snowing pretty hard when we came in Thursday night, but the roads were good. It was nice on the way.”
Lynn lives by herself, Schwilling said, with Schwindt and her husband only seven blocks away — close enough to check in or lend a hand when needed.
Another of Lynn’s daughters, Alfretta Ruhter of Aurora, Colo., also came in with family on Friday for her sister’s reception. Living a state apart does not keep the family from traveling back and forth to visit, though the visits can’t be frequent enough.
Schwilling had been reared in Colorado and moved to the Flint Hills area after meeting her future husband, Chase Countian Marvin Schwilling, when he was a student at Colorado A&M, now Colorado State University.
“My mom and dad owned a restaurant, and he ate there, and I worked there,” Schwilling explained.
The couple came to Emporia, where Marvin Schwilling worked for 37 years as a Kansas Fish and Game officer; Floy Schwilling worked as a secretary in the biology department at Emporia State University.
They reared four children, who blessed them with seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren whom Lynn was eager to visit.
“I told ’em I had to come to Emporia to see my grandkids,” Lynn said.
Seeing the Kansas branch of the family was a treat, but Lynn was set to make the return trip to Colorado on Sunday. On Saturday, one of her great-great granddaughters had turned 5 years old, and Lynn had another party on her calendar.
“We’ll have one Monday night for her, too,” Lynn said.