By the time Mom reached her 80th birthday, she was living with my sister Sheila in Texas.

Sheila organized a big event to mark the milestone and I will be forever thankful that she gave Mom this gift.

Here are some random items related to the day.

Connecting With Mom’s Out-of-State Friends

Sheila rented a hall a couple of miles from her house for the party, which was to be a surprise for Mom.  At some point in the planning, Sheila realized that Mom’s friends from New York and Indiana probably wouldn’t make the trip to Texas.  And without asking Mom for a complete list, we only knew her closest friends.

So, we took out half-page ads in the local newspapers in Albion Indiana and Arcade New York.  Above a picture of Mom when she was maybe in her early 50s, the headline ran “Do You Know This Woman?”  It went on to explain who she was and solicited people to reach out with any  birthday wishes and anecdotes about Mom.  We also asked people to send cards, photos, whatever.

The ads yielded a great number of responses and we considered the effort a success.  One treasure is a picture a former high school classmate sent that included Mom.  It was an earlier photo of Mom than was known to exist.

Sheila had much of the correspondence on display at the party.

Minor footnote: When Mom found out we “had to run an ad” to get people to respond she was very unhappy.  Until Sheila explained that it was my idea, “Paul did it!”  Then Mom was okay with it.  Sheila hated that I was Mom’s favorite!

Cousin Jerry

Dad’s nephew, Gerald’s son Jerry, made it to the party.  I don’t remember much about his participation other than it seemed important to him to make sure everyone knew he came ‘all the way from Georgia’, and that until he got the invitation, he thought Mom had been dead for years.  Thanks Jerry.

Model A

Sheila arranged for Mom to be picked up at her house and driven to the party in a pristine Model A Ford.  A great idea and Mom was delighted.

All Us Kids

With Neil living in New York, Diana in Indiana, Sheila in Texas and me in California, we rarely were all together at one time.  This may have been the only time in our adult lives Mom had all four of her kids together.  I think that meant a lot to her.

PS:  The logistics of this were a challenge.  It took some convincing to get Neil to agree to come as he hates flying.  I think Sheila shamed him into it by pointing out that I was flying in from Sweden just for the party.