Phew! The cat is finally out of the bag and this present is in my Dad's hands.
A few years ago on Pinterest I found an idea called 60 Years of Memories (
http://nothingbutbonfires.com/2011/06/sixty-years-memories). I kept it tucked away for my Dad's 50th knowing it would mean so much to him. The idea is that you contact X number of people in, this case, my Dad's life, to get their special memories of my Dad so I could put them into 50 different envelopes. So in May I got a list of people from my mom that she thought he'd like to hear from. I proceeded to use extreme detective measures to find email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses of nearly 100 people. I used Google, Facebook, other people, stealing his iPad, etc. and was pretty successful. But it didn't come without nearly a week or two of intense searching, calling, emailing. In the beginning of May, I sent out this email to many people as well as a few letters:
Dear Friends and Family,
First of all, this is a secret, so please do not let my dad, Jon Brief, know that I am up to something. I want to surprise him with this gift.
If you're receiving this message, you probably know that my dad, Jon Brief, is turning 50 on August 24th (much as he would hate me to be reminding everyone, I'm sure.). To celebrate his birthday, I'd like to put together a little surprise to let him know that his nearest and dearest are thinking of him. I’m going to try and create "50 Years of Memories" by filling 50 envelopes each with a memory his friends and family have of him.
And this is where you come in!
If you have a spare moment in the next few weeks, I would be so grateful if you'd jot down a favorite memory you have of my dad and put it in the mail. It doesn't have to be anything fancy -- you can just write it down on a piece of paper and sign your name. You can mention anything you’d like -- although the more nostalgic the better! Feel free to send more than one memory on different pieces of paper (in fact, I welcome it -- I've got 50 envelopes to fill!). I know handwritten would mean a lot, if you have the time, but you can send me an email as well. If you have any pictures to add, I would appreciate it. Lastly, please feel free to pass this along to anyone you think that might like to help (especially if I only sent this to one member of your family) because I could not find all of the people my dad is close to!
Thank you so, so, so much for participating -- I know everyone is busy with their own lives, and I do appreciate you taking a few minutes to do this. I know my dad will treasure this gift more than anything I could ever buy him.
Thank you so much again!
(Then I have them my contact information)
I ended up being able to get 73 letters, meaning nearly half of his envelopes would be double stuffed. I can't believe I was able to pull this off. Nearly everyone that knows my Dad, knew about the gift. I was in constant contact with so many people, and I appreciate everyone's patience with me, that I was so very nervous about the surprise being leaked.
So the past week I went to Joann's looking for a way to put it all together. I found a great box, some envelopes, some stickers to number and label things and then some inspirational quote stickers that said things like "The best things in life aren't things". Then one night, when Jack was down, I spread out all the letters and was so overwhelmed. What order do I put them in? Which ones do I combine? I laid them all out and was looking at this mess:
I then laid out each envelope 1-50 and laid the letters under each envelope. I did friends 1-32 and family 33-50.
I stuffed them and packaged it all up to look like this:
(I found this idea to explain to my Dad what this present meant to me on another blog. I really wanted to include this because I learned so SO much about him in these letters. Specifically what a happy, hardworking family man he truly is and it was great to learn that.)
(A copy of the email I sent out)
So I packed it up and we headed up north for the weekend to spend the time in a cabin with my family for my Dad's 50th. When we woke up on Saturday, his birthday, I was so incredibly nervous. I was anxious to give it to him and anxious that all the people blowing up his Facebook saying "Happy birthday" would let it slip. I was ready to pass this hard fought gift off, finally. We finally got around to giving gifts around 10:30/11. Everyone gave them his gifts first as mine would obviously take considerable time. When I finally came time for me to give the box to him I got very emotional. A mix of relief, anxiety and excitement for him to ready these memories (that painted such a beautiful picture). He got emotional because I was getting emotional!
There were lots of laughs and lots of tears, lots of memories relived and enjoyed again.
So in the end, the gift was a complete success. My dad said it meant so much that I was able to not only reconnect him with so many people from his past but that he gets to hear these things while living, as favorite memories are usually only shared once someone has passed. He is so grateful that people took the time to write, since nobody really does anymore. His only qualm is that I didn't give him a box of tissue to go with it!
In the end, I am extremely grateful to all of you who participated. I obviously could not have pulled this off without your participation and secrecy! Thanks to each and every one of you and Happy 50th, Papá!
