‘Are you my Jane?’ Childhood best friends reunite on their 94th birthdays
For two childhood best friends who grew up living in the same neighborhood and playing together, their paths unknowingly kept crossing after graduating high school, including living at a Jackson senior living home.
Jane Scott and Joann Vandiver turned 94 on Feb. 10 and on Feb. 12, meaning they celebrated at the monthly birthday party at assisted living home American House of Jackson, formerly Elmcroft.
“I’m older” they went back and forth saying at the party until Scott—keeping the title of the oldest resident—told Vandiver that her birthday was Feb. 10, making her two days older than Vandiver.
They kept talking.
Vandiver told Scott that she would celebrate her birth with best friend whose birthday was Feb. 10 like Scott’s.
Then they realized they both lived on Lexington Ave. at one point.
“My Joann moved off,” Scott said.
“I did (move away),” Vandiver said.
That’s when Vandiver asked, “Are you my Jane?”
Neither of them could’ve imagined reuniting as they celebrated their February birthdays like they did as kids.
“I never would’ve known her,” Scott said.
It was exciting for Vandiver.
“It was so sweet to see them realize they were childhood best friends,” said Casey Hays, the facility’s life enrichment assistant who creates activities for the residents.
Vandiver got to the nursing home in September after postponing her planned start in Feb. 2020, about a year after Scott started living there.
“I didn’t recognize her, and she didn’t recognize me,” Vandiver said about not knowing who Scott was. “We got a little older.”
What they remember: The girl with the prettiest feet
“I don’t remember like you do,” Scott said as she urged Vandiver to do most of the talking about their childhood friendship.
At one of Vandiver’s parties, she vividly remembered a game where the girls went behind a sheet with only their bare feet showing.
“They were checking to see who had the prettiest feet,” Vandiver said as she and Scott started laughing. “And she had the most gorgeous feet.”
They met at school and often saw each other, like when they played outside on tire swings and did the same things.
The girls attended grammar school at Whitehall, then Jackson Jr. High and Jackson High.
Vandiver instantly turned the 1946 Jackson High yearbook, the Tatler, to the page with Scott, showing Scott’s maiden name – Jane Johnson.
“Isn’t she pretty?” Vandiver said as Scott blushed and said she no longer looked like the 76-year-old picture.
Vandiver’s yearbook picture, which read Joan Simmons, revealed that she was called “Blondie” in high school.
They’d seen each other a few times since graduating high school before Vandiver moved to Washington D.C. and married her military husband. They moved around and lived in Japan, Texas, Colorado and Myrtle Beach, where she lived for 49 years before returning to Jackson to be closer to her family.
Not remembering the exact date, Vandiver recalled last seeing Scott before their 40th high school class reunion in 1986.
Scott got married, worked over the years and became a “fun” mom who roller skated and took her son and his friends on out-of-state trips for baseball.
“I think my baby’s 74,” Scott said smiling.
Neither of them realized they were often in the same places, such as the baseball stadium in St. Louis or in Myrtle Beach where Vandiver lived and where Scott often vacationed for weeks at a time.
“I didn’t know she was there,” Scott said.
Friendship continues at American House
The senior living home keeps residents busy with activities, such as outings in town, bus rides, parties and Family Fun Day.
Sometimes both ladies are at the activities, and sometimes they’re not, Vandiver said.
Even though they did the same things as kids, they’ve grown to have different interests and habits.
Hayes called Vandiver crafty because she can paint and draw.
Vandiver usually stays up late on her iPhone while Scott will watch TV from bed.
Scott has always been active, roller skating, swimming, and climbing trees.
“Raising a son, I did everything,” Scott said.
Even getting around in her wheelchair, she’s a “spunky little lady,” Hays said.
With her LPN license, Scott delivered five babies in one night when she worked with Dr. Henry Herrian.
“When I get to the delivery room, you better be there,” Scott told the doctor. “And he was.”
At the nursing home, she’d do the exercises with the group but she’s not currently able to due to her health.
Vandiver isn’t a morning person, so she skips the workouts.
“I don’t get up that early,” she said.
The one thing they still have common is that they’re at American House, Vandiver said.
“Just hanging out,” Scott said, laughing.
The fun and easy-going duo can quickly make each other laugh with jokes and compliments.
Complimenting Scott’s beauty and athleticism, Vandiver said Scott was better at everything as kids.
“I think she needs her glasses,” Scott said.
Calling herself bashful, Vandiver is a lot more talkative than she was back then.
“I wasn’t too quiet,” Scott said with 69-year-old resident Willie McCadney agreeing that she isn’t quiet. “Might as well tell the truth.”
Scott greets new residents and invites them to sit with her, and she checks on her neighbors in her hallway.
“They show you how to be good to everybody,” Hays said.
Living, laughing, enjoying every day
“It seems like your two personalities are why you get along,” Denae Sweeton, the community relations director for American House, said. “I can tell why they were friends.”
When they’re together, they’re like two friends who hadn’t lost touch, she and Hays said.
Scott and Vandiver talk during social hour every day, eat together, play Uno and do Trivia.
They talk about mutual friends, old boyfriends and their gray hair.
“We’re here and we’re friends,” Vandiver said. “We were friends way back then, lost touch and now we’re friends again.”
It’s wonderful to be able to sit around and laugh at 94, Scott said.
“Well, what else can we do?” Vandiver said, sending the room into laughter. “You have to laugh or cry, and we don’t want to cry.
Seeing them reconnect and rekindle their friendship at 94 makes Sweeton realize that childhood friendships are never forgotten.
“You always have an opportunity to run into them again,” Sweeton said.
This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: ‘Are you my Jane?’ Childhood best friends reunite on their 94th birthdays
