SURPRISE and happy 85th birthday, Mamaw!

On Nov. 10th, 2007 my family and I (along with 75 close friends) celebrated my Mamaw's 85th birthday. The party had been planned for weeks, the weather was perfect and all the guests were there........all we needed was Mamaw! My aunt, cousin and his fiance were to get Mamaw to the church for her very first surprise birthday party. In all the planning, I failed to realize that there was a Veteran's Day parade on the very day and at the very time of the party. So, they were slightly late, but it all turned out great in the end. They got her there by telling her Vernon (my cousin) and his fiance wanted to tour the church to get ideas for their wedding this spring and that they wanted her to join them. She reluctantly agreed, thank goodness!

She was genuinely shocked, surprised and touched by the number of people that came out to help her celebrate her big day. I made sure she was treated like royalty and even gave her a pink feather boa and crown. She was truly humbled and just kept repeating "I don't deserve this, I don't deserve this." She, of all people, most certainly did.

We had a wonderful time of fellowship. Many people stood up to express their public appreciation of her (including me) by retelling stories and by expressing their love for her.

After the party (and the clean up) the immediate family all followed her to her house for more visiting. We munched on the party left overs and just had a wonderful time catching up with each other.

As my gift to her, I made her a scrapbook. I included things from the early 1920's in it....advertisements, hit songs & movies, cost of living information, etc. I filled the second half of the book with photos of her, her and Papaw through the years, her two children, six grandchildren and all the great-grandchildren. Since she needed absolutely nothing, that was the only thing I could think of to give her that she didn't already have. Although one friend of hers did manage to also give her something she will always need.......toilet paper! She got quite a kick out of that.

If you'd like to see more pictures from the party, go here.

P.S. -- Little did we know that just five days later she would be rushed to the ER in an ambulance with an abnormal heart rhythm and extremely low blood pressure. After almost a week in the hospital she has thankfully recovered. Her doctor has changed her medications and hopefully this will not happen again.