There comes a point in gift-giving when it’s hard to think of the perfect birthday gift. That’s true for my dad this year. As I was “pondering” the dilemma this year, inspiration hit last Saturday at midnight. We’d recently recorded a birthday video for a friend. I would create a video for Dad’s 84th birthday.
I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning setting things up. I messaged many of his Facebook friends and asked them to record and upload a video birthday message. The next day, with Mom’s help, I harvested email addresses for his friends and sent them a message. I wish I’d had more time – folks had until Tuesday at midnight to share their greetings so I’d have time to pull this all together.
There were email bounce-backs, and I’m sure some messages hit SPAM folders. And then there’s the fact that many of dad’s friends are 84 too. And I’d asked them to record and upload a video! 🤨 So as folks wrote back with well-wishes rather than videos I added those messages to the video with Hannah’s help narrating. I wish I’d started the project much sooner to give me time to include more messages, but here’s the result.
Happy Birthday, Dad! I love you lots!
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So stealing this brilliant idea!!
What a wonderful birthday gift, hope your dad enjoys his day.
Start early! I used a site called Vidday.com to collect the videos.
Oh my goodness I love this.
We did letters for my husband’s 50th. It was wonderful to have letters from people who knew him as a child especially. This is something that we really need to do too.
I loved your daughter…she is so precious.
And I really loved this quote ‘No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each others’ worth.’ I collect quotes & I’ll be keeping & using this one.
And how did you make it through without crying…just beautiful. I hope your dad had a very special day.
I lost my dad when I was 17, three months before I graduated from high school. My husband & I are the oldest generation of our family & we’re only in our 50s. It is such a beautiful thing to see you & your family appreciate & love your dad so much.
I will say that I teared up reading and listening to the messages. It took me many takes on my portion to not be weepy!
Susan, this was a really great idea. Thank you for including me. Joe, I hope you have a really fantastic birthday.
I really enjoyed this. I’m sure your dad did, as well. Great job and thank you for sharing it here.
Thank you!
What an exquisite, loving, one of a kind gift!