Florence's 90th birthday

Hi, everyone,

Laura (my youngest) and I were in Minnesota for a college tour at St. Olaf and stayed with Kathy and Chuck for a nice visit last week. During this time, Kathy and I started talking about our mom's (Florence's) upcoming birthday: she'll be 90 on March 7.

We want to mark the occasion in some way; but we also want to be sensitive to her health issues. In other words, we want the day to be special but we don't want to wear her out.

Given those constraints, and given that we'd like to include everyone in the celebration, we came up with this idea: Gather thoughts/memories/wishes for Florence on tape and then present the tapes to her on her birthday.

We'd need the help of some of the cousins. Kathy and I would purchase a few hand-held tape recorders and send them to well-placed cousins (well-placed geographically in relation to Florence's sibs). The cousins could then record the thoughts etc of aunts/uncles/moms/dads--and their own, if they wanted--to share with Florence. Then you all could send the tapes (and recorders) back to Kathy and/or me, and we'd give the tapes to her.

We thought that by starting this project now, we could perhaps ask you to undertake some of the recording during Thanksgiving and/or Christmas gatherings.

What do you think? Would anyone be up for this? Let us know, either in this blog or via e-mail. You can contact me at jschorfheide@att.net.

Thanks!