50 Years of Memories

This summer, both of my parents turn 50 years old.  (Sorry for spilling your age Mom!)  Their birthdays are just two weeks apart, so this has always made for the perfect opportunity to celebrate them together.   My parents have recently made yet another state-to-state move, and with my youngest siblings graduated from highschool now, they are embarking on some major transition.  I wanted to take the opportunity provided by this "big" birthday to remind them what a major impact they've had through out all the many, many transitions and changes they've overcome in the past 50 years.  I came across this fantastic idea on Pinterest, and took it and made it my own.

In mid-May I set out to contact as many people as I could.   Since it was a surprise, I could hardly ask my mom for all of these addresses out of the blue, so I spent a few hours cruising facebook and whitepages.com.  (Stalker mode: activated!)  I commissioned my sister to sneak into my mom's address book and email account to get more contacts for me.

Then, I sent out an email and a few letters asking people to contribute a memory they had of my parents in the past 50 years.  It could be anything they liked.  The range of responses was fantastic.  I received some hand-written, some typed, but mostly emails.  There were one-liners, narrative paragraphs, snapshot style memories, pages of the impact and impressions they left, or the lessons they had shared along the way.

I took each of the contributions and divided them into 100 envelopes, 50 for my mom and 50 for my dad.  

In the first envelope I placed the following letter:

Mom and Dad,

            You hold in your hands 50 envelopes; what I am calling “50 Years of Memories”.  I have asked as many friends and family members as I could contact without arousing suspicion to write a memory, an anecdote, or an impression you left on them in the past 50 years.  I have responses that range from your births to this past year.

I can’t tell you what a joy it has been to work on this project for you.  It has been a privilege to hear what people think of you and how you shaped their lives.  It has deepened my gratitude to have you as my parents and grown my understanding of who you are as individuals.  I have cried and laughed out loud over the range of responses.  I can’t wait for you to read them!
           

I hope this gift will be a blessing to you.  I hope that it will remind you how much you are loved, how much of an impact you’ve had, and what a treasure you are.  I love you so very much.

With all my heart,
Autumn

Proverbs 31:28

{Their} children arise and call {them} blessed

 (substitutions mine)

I ordered embellishments for the envelopes, decorated them up a bit, stacked them neatly, and sent them off.

Unfortunately, they did not get to open their packages together.   The decorations I ordered for the envelopes took longer than planned to arrive, and I had a few last minute additions.  I was not able to mail them before my mom headed off on a trip, but I was able to get them in their hands before she actually left the country.

I Skyped with each of them separately while they opened them, and they were very touched.  Mom cried of course!  (A sure sign of success amoung the women in our family.)

It really was such a joy to do this.  I loved getting to read stories from their childhoods and hearing other accounts I never would have heard other-wise.  It also taught me that sometimes the moments you share with others leave a far greater impact on their lives, and consequently the lives of their children sometimes, than you may ever realize.

In this crazy, technology saturated world, I hope my little project encourages you to take part in encouraging someone with your written words.  Let somebody know how much they mean to you, how they impacted you, or remind them of a great memory you have together.  The 50 text messages you sent in the past hour will fade away, but the impact you have on another person can last for generations.