A cold beer, men in uniform, and a birthday wish come true

LYNNWOOD — She wants what most women want. And she isn’t afraid to ask for it.

For her 98th birthday, Hazel Hamor asked for a cold beer and a man in uniform.

As she sat in her wheelchair with a bottle of Blue Moon in hand, a police officer and two firefighters made surprise visits to her birthday party at her assisted-living home on Wednesday.

“Look at grandma,” Hamor said, grinning as she held her Belgian-style wheat beer. “This is what I needed.”

ManorCare of Lynnwood’s recreation director, Julie Garreis, threw Hamor a party after learning what she wanted for her birthday.

“Hazel is a character,” Garreis said. “We love her.”

Garreis arranged for her brother-in-law, a Washington State Highway Patrol officer, to stop by first. Motorcycle Officer Deion Glover donned his uniform on his day off for the occasion.

“Good thing I’m married, or I’d have to take you out,” Glover told Hamor.

She wore a silver crown with flashing red lights to her party. She held her beer in one hand and a scepter in the other as she chatted with the officer.

“I can’t talk, I’m getting so excited,” Hamor said, blushing. “Let me give you a kiss.”

Glover leaned down. Hamor gave him a smooch on the cheek. And then another.

The excitement didn’t end there. Larry Hadland and Greg Macke of the Lynnwood Fire Department also showed up in uniform to give Hamor a bouquet of flowers.

“She loves firemen. She’d always say, ‘They have the cutest little tushes,’” said her son, Bill Hamor. “I guess when you get old you can make comments about men’s derrieres.”

Five generations of the Hamor family came to the party.

Bill Hamor and his wife, Sally, came from San Luis Obispo, California.

Her daughter, Norene Lowery, of Lynnwood, also attended with more than a dozen other friends and family members. Several of Hamor’s six grandsons, 13 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren made it, too.

“It’s all family, even if you don’t like them,” Hamor joked.

She has quite a reputation for rich remarks made over the years. So much so that her friend, Carla Hubbard, also of Lynnwood, is writing a book on her life and her humor.

Hamor was born in Aztec, New Mexico. She attended school in Durango, Colorado. In 1935, she married Tony Hamor. The couple had two children. They lived in Arizona and California before moving to Lynnwood in 1976.

Tony Hamor worked for a telephone company while Hazel managed a five-and-dime store and a discount bread shop.

After her husband died in 1981, she bought a motorhome and traveled the country on her own for years.

Hamor always had an adventurous streak. She enjoyed water skiing and scuba diving.

“She’s done everything but jump out of an airplane,” said Lowery, her daughter.

Now, Hamor said, she’ll have to think of something to do for her 100th birthday.

That said, “Nobody could have a better birthday than this,” she said. “I just wanted to be happy. What else could you ask for?”