Happy 103rd Birthday, May!

By Shirley

May with daughters Wendy and Lori

The Angell Tea Group met this month to celebrate May’s 103rd birthday. Yes, that is not a typo - 103!!! I don’t know her secret. It probably involves a healthy diet since May is a former nurse, and plenty of mental stimulation since she revels in reading and discussing political and world issues.

We enjoyed her and her two daughters' (Lori and Wendy) company during a well attended and delicious tea party at Sharon’s home.

We also had the pleasure to watch a film about May, her experience in the Japanese internment camp during World War II and her influence on the next generations - her daughter and her grandsons. 

Lori commented about the film: “Here is a link to a short video entitled Densho. It is a Japanese term that means "to pass on to the next generation" and it caught the attention of an artist friend of Zach's (May’s grandson) named Hiro LeMarsh. Hiro is half Japanese, a fine artist based in NYC, and for a solo art exhibition he has this spring he envisioned this video as part of it. Last fall Hiro showed up in Detroit, then Ann Arbor, with a talented film crew of four fellow New Yorkers, and captured enough footage to edit it down to this gem. It opens outside of Zach and Ben's Hamtramck studio work space, Portage Garage, with scenes in May's living room and in my house. At the opening, the soundtrack has a segment from one of Zach's first albums Lineage on which he recorded my mom responding to his question about Pearl Harbor day and the aftermath. It was all very impromptu but it captured something important.”

You can watch the film here!