Happy 88th Birthday Mom!

 

Today is my Mom's 88th birthday -- what a wonderful accomplishment! My mom doesn't like a lot of attention so we purposely kept her celebration very low key. Paul & I took my parents to my mom's favorite restaurant, The Market Street Grill, for lunch and my brother Kent was the only other sibling that was available to join in with us. We had a really enjoyable meal together and mom delighted in just being out of the house for a few hours.

A couple of weeks ago when I went to my parents home to visit them one Saturday afternoon, my mom showed me a scrapbook that she had come across down in her basement. It was in a very sad condition with all sorts of photos and memorabilia jumbled up inside and spilling out of the covers. Mom thought it wasn't worth much any more and thought she'd just throw it away. When I began perusing through the contents of this clutter, I was shocked to discover precious photos and memorabilia from my mom's life beginning back when she was just in grade school and continuing through her junior high, high school and college years. There were reports cards, student body cards, autograph books, newspaper articles, piano recital programs, blue ribbons from county, state and national 4H fairs, wedding photos, graduation photos, diplomas, etc, etc, etc. I was fascinated. I convinced my mom that this was worth saving and asked her to let me take everything and see if I could do something with it all.

When I got home I pulled out a book I have of family records and in it I found an autobiography that my mom had written back in 1976, when she was 55 years old. All of a sudden I had a brainstorm! I decided to combine the scrapbook memorabilia with her autobiography and put it all together in a bound, booklet form and give it to her for her birthday. So last Friday I spent the whole day on the computer and in my scrapbook/sewing room where I was able to put everything together into 40 pages. I took it to Kinkos on Saturday and they copied it and bound it and I ended up with copies for my parents, my siblings and my children.

I was so excited to give this to my mom today and see what her reaction would be. She was thrilled! She just couldn't believe that all that "junk" she had in that jumbled up scrapbook could be put together so meaningfully. The booklet is small, just 40 pages, but it is priceless! I'm excited that my mom can read what she has written many years ago and look at pieces of her life from years ever longer ago and then reminisce about "the good old days" with my dad, her kids and her grandkids. I should probably do something like this with all of my own collection of my life's treasures!