Retirement Party

My mom retired from teaching after 25 years in the classroom.  Some of the years were before I was born, but most of them were from the past 20 years, once Daniel got to be 10 years old (or so).  Her last "official" day was June 30th, even though her last day at school was at the beginning of June.  We'd thought about what we could do for her, but it is so hard to get our act together when all of us kids live so far away and it's hard to visit multiple times with all of our kids in tow.  So, we decided to have a surprise retirement party for her as part of the weekend when we all head home to WV.  I had a few co-conspirators from WV, but the rest of the planning was done by my Aunt Patty, Karen and me -- all from afar.  Daniel only wanted to know what time he needed to be where : )  Fortunately, I managed to learn mom's email password, so I was able to "hack" into her account and get addresses from her address book so I could send the invitation over "evite."  Dad helped with snail mail addresses for the rest, and making sure our list was complete.  I was expecting 20-30 people to come.....in the end we had over 50 RSVP that they were coming with multiple maybe's and some people who just showed up.  It was amazing.

As the party grew, I managed to enlist the help of some of my friends here in Ohio for the food prep.  Two of my most wonderful friends actually made a lot of the food for the party and then I transported it in coolers to WV.  On our way home we made a pit-stop in Sistersville to drop off the food and show Merritt what we had so she could pick it up on Saturday morning and take it to the church for the party.  It was amazing to me how many people helped pitch in and do stuff for the party.  It ended up being so nice (although people who attended didn't eat NEARLY enough food -- so much for the http://www.ellenskitchen.com/ website for party planning!).

Our biggest challenge was getting mom out of the house.  We'd talked about a brunch, but Mom was very anti doing anything for her retirement.  We finally convinced her that a nice family brunch wasn't too much and it would be low-key and nice.  When we got into Sistersville, Liam asked Karen why we were stopping at this one place (since Mom & Dad rode in her van) and Karen responded "We've been lying to Grandma. This is where we're eating."  Mom knew something was up for sure when Daniel's old wrestling coach, who lives out in the other end of the county, got out of a nearby car.  We were there early, and I hadn't exactly planned a "surprise" welcome with all of the guests already there, but a few had managed to get there early.

When Mom walked in the church, her biggest surprise was seeing her best friend from college Jo Casey, and her husband John.  Jo and John made the trip from New Jersey, just to see her.  Another huge surprise, was Mom's friend, Kim Spurgeon, that she grew up with going to YMCA camps together.  Kim came from St. Louis, Missouri.  It was amazing that those ladies made the effort to come.  After the party they came back to the house and visited for a while too, which was a lot of fun to hear some stories about mom!

Here are a few pictures from the party.

Yes, Witschey's does make cupcake cakes.

I was nervous when placing the order because it didn't sound like the lady knew what I was talking about, but it turned out great!

Uncle Daniel with a sleeping Lauren

Quite the spread of food

finger sandwiches, fruit, scones, cookies, lemon tarts & cupcakes

I asked guests to bring memories of Mom and how she impacted them or someone they knew.  A few people brought stories that I put into a scrapbook. Some people didn't listen and brought gifts.  It ended up being a nice memento, even if I didn't get as many stories as I'd hoped.

Larry Ritchie, Patty Frayte, Sarah Smith, Peg Koerber, Gwen Davies

Somehow I didn't get pictures of guests like I'd planned....I guess it was because I was chasing kids around.  There are also some pictures that I know my sister got that I didn't (like the one of our whole family), but my selection will just have to do for now!



Mom & her friend, Debbie Wilson

Emmaus Walk Ladies

Mom's very first principal (from the '70's) - Earl Lucas (and his lovely wife, Joan)

(Joan and Earl are credited with getting mom back to church by telling her that if she wasn't going to church her children would grow up to be heathens.  Thanks Lucas'!)

Dad and Uncle Ford

They are the only siblings left on the Folger side. 

Would you believe my dad is 70 and my uncle is almost 80?  They look good (and alike)!

Mom with her friend, Kim Spurgeon

Mom's first principal when she went back to teaching after spending more than 10 years at home with us kids -- Lynn Caseman.  He's a riot.  He still calls me piranha, because I'm a lawyer, but it started when I was in high school just saying that I wanted to be a lawyer.....He actually yelled "hey Piranha" when he walked through the door of the party.  He also told a great story about the day my mom was late for work and he searched our house looking for her (likely a lesson in why you should lock your doors!).