Stacking up some fine cushions

published July 14, 2011

in the Stockton Sentinel

Stockton, Kansas

            In just a few short days from the date of this paper, I will be trying not to stumble as I step over another milestone. The glow you may see in the sky on the 17th might simply be the illumination of candles on my birthday cake. Without telling you the exact number of candles, suffice it to say that I have not been able to blow them all out in a single breath for quite a few years. I am a grandma, after all.

            Someone once said: “Cherish all your happy moments; they make fine cushions for old age.” Certainly I’ve been blessed with many happy moments, and I’ve stacked up some mighty fine cushions that ought to keep me comfy in my old age, if I ever allow such a thing to arrive. I want to share with you the story of one of those cushion-stacking moments – my 50th birthday party.

            Several years before I turned 50, I wrote on a sticky note an idea of how I wanted to celebrate my birthday, and placed the note in my Bible. As the time drew closer, I tried talking myself out of the idea several times, but it kept nagging me until I finally shared it with my husband. Just verbalizing it almost scared the idea out of my head, but I stuck with it and began making plans.

            First, you need to have a little background information. Growing up in the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church, hymn singing has been an important part of my faith journey. When we moved to Mankato in 1993 and began attending Harmony United Methodist Church, I quickly found a home among Methodists who also love to sing. I directed the adult choir there for eight years. At the time of my 50th birthday, we had moved to Galva, and we were attending the Canton United Methodist Church where I was again directing an adult choir with good singers. (My husband and I joyfully call ourselves “Metho-nites!”)

            So the birthday celebration consisted of getting a group of people together to sing 50 of my favorite hymns, but it developed into more than just singing. I accumulated names and addresses of just about everybody I knew and sent an invitation to join me in celebrating 50 Years with 50 Friends all singing 50 Hymns and each offering 50 Dollars to be split 50 Percent to Mennonite Relief and 50 Percent to Methodist Missions.

            The toughest task of the entire plan was arriving at the “limited” list of 50 favorite hymns. I made a “rule” for myself that the hymns had to come out of the Mennonite and Methodist hymnals being used at the time. Still, my first pass through my hymnals produced far more than 50 favorites. But I kept working at it and eventually trimmed the list to 27 from the Mennonite hymnal, 23 from the Methodist hymnal, and one of my own writing. Obviously many of the hymns were in both hymnals, so I purposely chose numbers as necessary to make it look fairly equitable on my printed program. And if you did the math, you discovered that we actually sang 51 hymns – that allowed for “one to grow on!”   

In response to my invitation, I began receiving cards from friends and family who were not able to attend but wanted to be a part of the celebration by contributing to my offering. And on the day of the celebration, far more than 50 people showed up; the church in Canton was nearly full. Several vanloads of my former choir members from Mankato drove three hours to be at the party.

I had two breaks built into the program and provided cookies and bottles of water to refresh my singers, and then we’d get back into it again, until finally, after a little over three hours of singing, we arrived at the 51st hymn, the “one to grow on,” which was “My Life Flows On In Endless Song.” We had accomplished the list, and everyone retreated to the fellowship hall for a light supper and… birthday cake! One of my choir members from the Mankato church informed me he was not coming to my 80th birthday party!

Having a group of people gather to sing 50 of my favorite hymns, one after another in one grand afternoon, was one of the most memorable events of my life. But singing those great hymns was only one piece of this amazing event. Because of the generous offerings that people brought or mailed ($50, or any amount of their choosing), a total of $2,216 was split 50/50 between Mennonite and Methodist mission organizations. What a thrill it was to deliver $1,108 to each of the organizations!

I don’t have quite that much planned for this birthday, although I do plan to have a great weekend celebrating with friends. I’m sure there will be some fine cushion-stacking moments as we anticipate lots of happy moments ahead!