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We had a lovely dinner at BJ’s restaurant in Jarvisburg. Mom bought us dinner and had made arrnagements to have the table decorsted with flowers and gifts and we were joined for dinner by Tracey, Megan and Grace and Phil and his wife Kathy. afterwards it was a stop by tracey’s house where she and the kids had made a cake and more flowers and presents. Just a wonderful evening we had. Happy Birthday Mrs G! I love you! xxx

Alison’s Birthday

Have a great day my Love. Wish I was there to celebrate with you! Next year my angel we will do it up right! :)

Love you buches baby! XXXXX

Chester

Gretchen has always had this thing about calendars. She had all the family and friends birthdays listed and marked, wedding anniversaries, anniversaries of deaths, Dr's appts, work schedules..etc.. And she also used them to keep track of "special events" school events for the kids and grandkids (like she would forget those? )  

 
Every year around November or December, it was a top priority to get a new wall calendar for the upcoming year. And she would meticulously tranfer each birthday or event to the new one. Over the last few years I off and on suggested she use the caelndar program on the computer , so she wouldn't have to keep redoing one each year.  I told her about all the marvelous features, setting up reminders, creating recurring events etc.. She (halfhearted) said she'd give it a try one day.. but I think she was just trying to pretend like she was going to.. I think it gave her comfort and  it was more a personal loving touch that she kept up the wall calendars. Looking back through them now (she saved them all) I'm very glad she didn't take my advice. There are so many "personal" little family event entries on them, days when one of the kids lost a tooth, when one of the kids or grandkids had a school project or trip, records of special days to her.. there was even an entry on the day one of the girls started shaving their legs!  I'll bet they don't remember the day, but Gretchen did.  
  I haven't gotten them all together, some are in a cabinet, others in a drawer somewhere  etc. It brings back so many good memories and shows how important her family and friends were to her. And you can tell by the way she wrote some things, they were so meaningful to her.. Like the mother's Day gift of the haircut from the girls, the entry was all capital letters and exclamation points "GREAT, GREAT GIFT!!"
  She left us so much, each day is a new discovery, I found 2 big boxes of cards, (holidays, birthdays, greeting cards) She's saved everything that the girls, me the grandkids and friends had sent or given to her over the years.. I' don't know where to begin to get everything together, but all these things are treasures to our family and we'll take great care of them. I don't know that I'll be keeping a calendar as well as she did, but I'll surely give it my best,  
 
Thank you sweety for alll the love and caring all these years.