MOST Profile: Hats off to another decade

Milestone birthdays. We’ve all had them – 40, 50, 60…  For some, the celebration is low key – dinner with family or friends. For others the event is “major league.” Read how three area women chose to celebrate their milestones. 

Forty days and forty nights
Jill Mathers of Kitchener was stressed about her upcoming 40th birthday last July. “What should I plan for such a milestone birthday?” she fretted. “Who would I invite?” “Who would I forget to invite?” “And what if I planned a celebration and it was a big flop?” It was with these ominous thoughts that Jill conceived of a 40th birthday that would unfold over 40 days and nights, incorporating various events, venues and guest lists. She couldn’t go wrong with this plan.
With two friends she started “big”—several days in New York City. The girls shopped, dined and had fun in the Big Apple. Two later birthday parties took place at family cottages in Muskoka. Another event saw Mathers having cocktails with university friends; still another reunion was with elementary school buddies.
The piece de resistance was a fete on the evening of the 40th day. The guest list saw various women who had had an influence on the birthday girl’s life coming together to offer best wishes. They included former teachers, group leaders, neighbours, relatives and friends. It was at this celebration that Jill was presented with a memory book containing hand-penned reminiscences and reflections of her throughout the years. Catered and bartended by Mathers’ husband, her brother-in-law and her father, the party went on until 4 am.
In looking back over her summer of fun and festivities, Mathers recommends her method of approaching a milestone birthday. “Spreading my birthday over 40 days and nights allowed me to touch base with people in all aspects of my life, and spread out the enjoyment too,” she says. 

No mountain’s too high
Shirley Lichti of Waterloo calls her 50th birthday present to herself a “test of physical endurance and strength.” To celebrate the auspicious event, she and her husband John Hayes climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Having twice before scaled Japan’s Mount Fiji, the Hayes-Lichtis felt that they wanted a bigger challenge.
Flying from Toronto to Nairobi, Kenya, the couple then boarded a bus for the eight hour ride to Moshe, Tanzania, the closest settlement to the mountain they call “the roof of Africa.” There they met nine fellow climbers and the guides who would lead them, over the next six days, upwards of 5,895 meters to Kilimanjaro’s summit .
Day One of the climb was easy-going for the fit twosome, but by Day Two, now encountering air that was low on oxygen, all the climbers experienced fatigue. “I felt physically sick and had a terrible headache,” Lichti recalls. Conditions became more challenging the higher the hikers climbed. By Day Four, two of their party turned back, unable to keep pace. Day Five saw them at 5,900 feet, breathing oxygen that was only 50 per cent of what they would usually breathe “on earth.”
Day Six commenced at midnight with climbers and guides in full winter clothes for the 16 degree climate. Lichti’s husband  made a decision to return to base camp at this point in the trip. He had developed a painful sinus headache that was getting worse with each step upward. Lichti continued on.
Of the party of eleven who began the climb, only one man reached the summit. All women who set out completed their goal. Lichti wishes that she had been  exhilarated when she finally reached the summit. “But I only felt exhaustion,” She does recall watching the sun rise over Mount Kilimanjaro that morning and calls it “truly inspiring, like something out of National Geographic.”
Lichti calls her Mt. Kilimanjaro climb “the single most difficult thing I have ever done in my life.” To go along with that, she also feels “an incredible sense of accomplishment on being able to say. “On my 50th birthday, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.” 

A little culture never hurt anyone
New Hamburg’s Elaine Gross turned 65 with a definitely cultural flair. Some months ago she and daughter Rachel attending a fundraiser for the National Ballet  Company . Gross bid in a silent auction on a chance for two people to have bit parts in the ballet The Nutcracker, performed each Christmas season by the Ballet Company at the Four Seasons Theatre in Toronto. She won the prize, and originally planned it to go to Rachel and her grand daughter Natasha. “But then I realized that a backstage tour and  a chance to meet with some of the dancers was part of the prize,” she explains. “So I decided that I would treat myself for my birthday.” 
Her prize saw Gross and Rachel taking the stage on January 3 at the closing Nutcracker performance. They assumed the roles of the two “cannon dolls” – one timid, one brave – and appeared on stage dressed as Russian Petrouchkas, in wig, robe, shoes and hat. “We were told that as soon as we got on stage our movements had to be quite exaggerated and expressive,” Gross comments.
They were pulling behind them a small cannon. Once the cannon was in place,
(assisted by a cast member) they pointed and “fired” it twice—once at the audience another at the Mouse King character. When ignited, the cannon spewed a torrent of colourful streamers. 
This violence caused the “timid” cannon doll, Elaine, to swoon. Before she hit the floor her “brave” partner, Rachel caught her fall. “Me being the timid cannon doll was perfect because I had huge stage fright,” Gross recalls.
“You would think that canoeing on the Amazon, walking parts of the Great Wall of China, watching sunrises on both
Kilimanjaro and Mt. Everest, etc.; would be enough for this ‘ole gal,” she laughs. “ Why had this one left me sleepless more than any of the others?” I think it was because I was so worried I’d do something wrong and mar the performance.”
In assuming the four minute long roles near the beginning of the ballet, they joined such luminaries as Margaret Atwood, Toronto Mayor David Miller, hockey player Mats Sundin and Rick Mercer playing the same part on other performances. The
National Ballet Company notes that it “proudly continues with its tradition of inviting celebrities and others, small walk-on roles for the annual performance of The Nutcracker.”
Creativity seems to be the buzzword for creating events for milestone birthdays. The only common factor is celebrating the day with loved ones. 

By By Nancy Silcox