Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 7, 1995 TAG: 9502070061
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hazel's mother, Lenore Nash Morris, was going to turn 100 on Feb. 4.
More than 75 people - including 14 grandchildren and 19 great-grands - would be coming to the catered affair to be held at Hazel's home. And when Hazel, 70, told me of her plans for the party, she absolutely sparkled.
Then on the phone two weeks ago her voice was filled with fear and anxiety.
``We had to call the party off,'' Hazel told me. ``Mother is really bad. She's very sick.''
In the course of a week, Miss Morris had come down with a viral infection, pneumonia and congestive heart failure. She was hospitalized and not doing well.
But worse was yet to come.
Just days later, when Hazel and her brothers and sisters went to visit their mother at Lewis-Gale Hospital, Miss Morris had no idea who they were. And she seemed to be going blind.
Miss Morris had suffered a stroke. She was moved to South Roanoke Nursing Home shortly after.
The party was off.
Still, if her mother lasted until her birthday, Hazel insisted she still wanted TV weatherman Willard Scott to announce the occasion on ``Today.'' Hazel had sent in her mother's photo months in advance.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m. last Friday, Hazel phone me at home. Upset.
``Well, he's done his last birthdays, and he didn't do my mother's,'' she said.
It seemed that nothing that Hazel had hoped to do for her mother was going to happen.
My first conversation with her had been such a joyful one. She was filled with pride for her family and plans for the biggest event they would ever share.
The conversation that followed nearly broke my heart.
So I was delighted when Hazel called on Friday and decided nothing was going to stop her from doing something to celebrate.
``As long as the weather isn't bad, we're going over to that nursing home and we're going to have a little party,'' she said with resolve.
Lenore Morris is a beautiful woman. And a tough one at that, despite how delicate and feminine she appears.
Her husband, Russell, was a Roanoke city police officer when he was shot in the back in the line of duty in 1932. The incident left him paralyzed. He died two years later, leaving Miss Morris with five children to raise.
The youngest, Ann, was conceived on a bet.
Miss Morris bet her husband that they could indeed have one more child, because Russell, depressed about his paralysis, was sure they couldn't.
Miss Morris won that bet. And according to Hazel, Ann is more like her father than any of her siblings.
No one in the family is quite sure how their parents met, but they do know how they married.
Lenore was working at Kresge's in Roanoke. Russell hopped off a train, Lenore met him with the marriage license, and the two ran off to City Hall and got married.
Russell boarded the train later that day and was off to France and World War I.
Hazel was proud of how her mother looked on her birthday. She seems well on the way to recovery, smiling as she pointed out a room filled with flowers, balloons and a giant stack of birthday cards.
It wasn't the catered affair Hazel had in mind. The family stopped at the store and picked up a huge cake, potato chips, ginger ale and some peanuts. Some 32 showed up to celebrate.
When Lenore Nash Morris was born back in 1895, Grover Cleveland was president. ``America the Beautiful'' had just been composed. Postage stamps cost 2 cents, and the average annual income was $427.
Miss Morris has lived a very full life.
Her son, Sam Morris, 72, figures she's probably the oldest registered Republican in this area. She voted for Bush in 1992. Her face lights up when you mention Nixon, Reagan and Bush. The face she makes when you mention Kennedy, Carter and Clinton is filled with disgust.
Mention clothes, and her face lights up. Until all of the health problems hit last month, she loved shopping.
``And she doesn't like any of those old lady things,'' Hazel will tell you. ``She wants young clothes, and looks pretty in them.''
From the look of her last weekend, it seems more than plausible Miss Morris will be up and shopping in no time. Back to her routine of having her hair done two times a week. And back to services at Villa Heights Baptist Church, where she hasn't missed a Sunday in close to 70 years.
Hazel wants her mother out of that nursing home. After she's been there 20 days, she'll return home with Hazel, where she's lived for more than 41 years.
by CNB