Island Birthday

The man who taught my mother to speak Gilbertese just turned 80. My mother was able to send him birthday wishes via Facebook. She wrote to him, "In my mind you are still the young man who taught us Gilbertese. Then I remember the many times we sat on the verandah of our mission house, and we struggled to learn the difficult words." My mother is now 84. The photo was taken more than 50 years ago, with my mother and sister sitting on a Gilbertese mat. OBSERVATION: Today the Gilbert Islands are a part of the far larger Kiribati Republic.