102 candles

When I was in middle school, we got to have "Secret Pals" from Lytton Gardens, a senior community in Palo Alto. I think we wrote letters to them and paid them visits. Sweet idea. I just wish I could have had Lolita Olaine as my pal.

I just got an email saying that Olaine is being honored this Sunday -- her 102nd birthday -- by the First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto. She's being named Artist-in-Residence Emeritus, thanks to the "hundreds of oils and watercolors of nature scenes" she's created, wrote churchgoer Patty Fisher. Fisher also said Olaine still goes to church every Sunday and tools around downtown with her walker.

I also found a bio of Olaine online that says she started an art gallery in the church in the 1960s, and apparently much of her work still hangs there. Sounds like a good story to me...