To celebrate, most of the family is heading to Kansas City. The real party will be Saturday night at Ameristar - per GG's request. I really hope she's not reading this blog today or the surprise will be ruined, but we're going to the casino by limo and just having a hoot of a day. We got a hotel room (Ameristar's been difficult and apparently they have no conference type rooms for us to rent) where we'll have snacks, cupcakes and board games for the po' folks like me who can't gamble for 12 hours straight. Oh yeah - coolers of beer up there too. And koozies to decorate. (That was my idea of course. My dad is going to hate me.)
I'm really excited about the video we made her. My cousin Karli and I have spent a LOT of time on it - though my mom, aunt Bev, Olivia, aunt Deanna and GG's sister Bernice have helped a lot too. The title of the movie? "Lorraine Adele - this is your life (or so we think)." It's a chronicle the major milestones of her past 80 years - or at least what we'd classify as major milestones of her past 80 years. This was an interesting project for many reasons:
1. Karli and I realized we didn't know as much as we thought we did about GG. I knew she was born in North Dakota, but wasn't exactly sure where. We didn't know her middle name. We couldn't spell her maiden name (Friederich) for the life of us. That's bad.
2. I got to scan all of the photos. It's time consuming. But fortunately I am a scanning whiz now and even learned a shortcut so I didn't have to scan each photo individually. I'd probably still be scanning if that was the case.
3. While my family is very close, we don't see a lot of each other. Most of my cousins have kids. We're spread across the country. We have different interests. However, events like this give us an opportunity to get together more frequently and I like that.
4. Don't think you'll cram 80 years into a 15 minute video. This video's going to be about an hour. Not kidding.
The best part of making the video though - by far - is the photos I got to go through and that I now have access to because they're on my computer. We found some great photos I probably would never of seen, let alone have, if it weren't for this project. They are very special to me. Some of my favorites:
A lot of the family with my great grandma in the middle left. I never met her; she passed away shortly after this photo (I think). My mom is pregnant with me in this photo.
My pregnant mom (with me!) and her grandma. Essentially four generations of women here (without my grandma in the photo of course).
My grandma, grandpa and me (technically my step-grandpa because my grandma was divorced and remarried) but he was always grandpa to me. He passed away when I was in high school.
My great-grandfather. He passed away before I was born. I don't think I had ever seen a photo of him before.
My grandpa Ralph (my mom's dad) in the navy. Such a cool photo. He passed away when I was in 6th grade. After a few beers when I am out with my folks I always cry because I think he and Trevor would have gotten along so well.
My grandma and grandpa Ralph's engagement photo.
Grandma and grandpa Ralph's wedding photo.
Grandma and grandpa's marriage certificate.
My mom's baby photo.
I can't wait to see the video! And I can't wait to share this story with the rest of my family:
We were getting a beer stein engraved for my grandma for Saturday night. My mom called me on her way to the engraving place and here's how the conversation went:
Mom: "I'm on my way to get the mug engraved. What should I put on it?"
Wendy: "How about happy birthday GG on one side and on the other side either 80 years young or her birthdate."
Mom: "I don't know what year she was born in."
Wendy: Silence
Mom: Laughter
Wendy: "Wow. That'll get brought up this weekend."
Have a great weekend!
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