2026 Life Logs, Day 168: Garden Party at the Museums on the Green
Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Weather: Gorgeous Day; High Temp 75, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The part of my life that is dealing with moving my sister here from North Carolina is just mess right now, but regardless, today was a gorgeous day for the end-of-the year Encore reception at the Museums on the Green. As VP of Programs, it was my idea. And it was lovely. But if my grandson Sam had not come to my rescue, I don’t know what I would have done. Yesterday as I was going through all of the last-minute things I had to do for set up, I realized I was in trouble. I asked Sam if he would help me, and he immediately responded that he would be glad to help. Thank you, Sam.
I had already asked my friend Karen Baranowski to be in charge of picking up the 250th birthday cake for our ‘red,white&blue’ reception and dealing with cutting and serving. Thank you, Karen.
Christina Brodie, who was Co-President of Encore with me for two years, and Past Co-President with me this year, got her TIPS certification so she could be the bartender. Plus, she offered to go buy the wine and other drinks and deliver them. Thank you, Christina.
This year’s President, Jeanne Fortier, is also TIPS certified to serve liquor in Massachusetts, so she took on the job of greeting everyone and handing them a glass of prosecco for our toast to our incoming and outgoing Board members. Thank you, Jeanne.
The food was being catered, so that left me with nothing to do. Wrong. I had made the mistake of planning to do the set up by myself. That meant getting 70 chairs out of two storage areas in two different buildings and setting them up in the Cultural Center. And getting all of the tables needed for food and sign-in and for serving the prosecco and for the bar out of storage and set up and moved to the various locations (not all close together). And I had to buy the ice at the last minute and put up the tent for the bar to be outside and I had to meet with the caterer. With Sam and I working as fast as we could, it took a full hour and half to do all of this. And when Sam finished all of that, he helped unpack the champagne flutes which were plastic and had a base that had to be attached. He was so good at all of this that I think he should get a summer job working for a catering service. Thank you, Sam. You saved my day.
Despite all the preparation, we had a lovely garden party. The weather was gorgeous and things went off without a hitch. Well, maybe I didn’t order quite enough food, but no one complained. The Executive Director of the Museums on the Green was so gracious to let us have our celebration of Falmouth history and the birthday of our country on their beautiful grounds. So, one last thank you to Rachel Lovett.
I have been on the Encore Board for three years and it has been a great experience. But it has taken a good chunk of my life. I will still be an active Encore member and lead various groups, but I won’t have the time-consuming duties of a Board member. Christina and I came into Encore together to serve as Co-Presidents together and we are going off the Board together. And someone snapped a photo of us looking way too jubilant this afternoon!
In between all of this, I spent much of day still trying to figure out transportation here for my sister. My nephew’s wife cannot come along to take care of Patsy, so I have asked the woman who has worked as her private care companion for three years if she will do it. I could do it, but I would have to quickly cancel the visit of a good friend who has traveled here from Oregon who is coming on Monday. I will find out tomorrow what the private care companion thinks about accompanying Patsy on the two-day trip. Over her three years of being with Patsy every afternoon, she has gotten to know Patsy’s son-in-law and my nephew from West Virginia who will be the drivers. Fingers crossed that his idea will work.
