Page 51 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2022 - Online Magazine

Exceptional
SENIORS
NINETY YEARS
of Grit and Grace
Ann (Kaki) Skylstad
by Kay Weston
I and get a fifty-point bonus.) I find
recently sat across a Scrabble
board from my friend, Kaki.
This happens at least twice a
week, as she hosts the Lubbock
Scrabble Club meetings at her
house. It’s a perfect set up, with
room for four games on her
dining room table. “Why doesn’t
everyone love this game as much
as we do?” the feisty 89-year-
old queries. I assume this is a
rhetorical question, shrug, and
continue shuffling my tiles. I’m
busy working on my next play. I
have good tiles, and I think there
might be a bingo in there. (A bingo
is when you use all seven tiles
Young nurse Ann
flyers by the coffee shops?” is her
next question. She has a lot of
questions. “When you quit being
curious, you’re done for,” she often
says. I assure her I took the flyers.
Scrabble Club has struggled to
get our membership back up after
Covid. She wants the word out
that we are up and running.
Down at the other end of the table,
longtime member Max is playing
newcomer Peg. She’s getting expert
encouragement and instruction.
The Applegate sisters - WWII era
At another board, Grace and Sandi
are just finishing their game. I
glance around the room at Ann’s
photos and memorabilia. They
ORIENTER and plunk it down for
tell the story of a full and rich life.
70 points. She ponders and decides Born in 1932, in Corydon, Indiana,
not to challenge it. Wise move. It is
an acceptable word in the Scrabble Ann Applegate was the eldest of
lexicon. five sisters. Her dad was a country
doctor, and she often accompanied
She answers with JEUX for 85 him on his house calls, which
points. She’s strategically placed it sometimes lasted overnight. At
on a triple word score. Later in the a young age, she saw the whole
game, she has a bingo, REPOSES, spectrum, from birth to death. The
and soundly defeats me 435- time spent with her daddy was the
306. Her bright, blue-green eyes best part, Ann recalls.
sparkle as we remove the letters When Ann was in third grade,
from the board. “Good game!” she World War II broke out. Her dad
exclaims. Every game we play is had taken her mom out on a
a good game. “Did you take those horseback ride for her birthday.
Lubbock Senior Link 51