Martha Johnson celebrated 104 years on Saturday, March 28, 2020. This year’s COVID-19 put a kink in Martha celebrating with family and friends. Last year, Martha celebrated with an open house at the Fremont Store complete with party decorations, sign-in sheet, birthday cake, bars and coffee. It was a joyous celebration. Martha was able to catch up on all the neighborhood happenings. This year proved to be the complete opposite. No friends and limited family members, due to being quarantined, made this most likely the loneliest birthday to date.
Happy Hart 4-H Club couldn’t take the chance of sending her cards or pictures via the U.S. Postal Service. At 104, we wanted her to remain safe so we created a virtual birthday party. The kids wanted her to know how much she is loved and that she wasn’t forgotten. They spent several days coloring and getting pictures ready to be created into a slide show. The slide show included a virtual birthday cake, flowers, presents and pictures of the kids holding their creations along with their pictures.
Tearnee Smith’s picture displayed a vibrant rainbow surrounded by hearts and stars, Brooke Calteaux’s whimsical and colorful flower just popped off the page. Sisters Audrey and Madisen Lorch went with a floral theme as well. Audrey’s consisted of a single bright red rose and Madisen’s was a beautiful flower garden complete with a bunny. Logan, Ada, Kathleen and Emelia Zoellner each drew fun pictures, too. Logan’s had a flying dragon with lots of balloons, Ada’s contained a brilliant blue balloon and multiple red hearts, Kathleen’s had a vivid flower and fluttering butterfly near a bright yellow star, and little 3-year-old Emelia drew colorful squiggles all about. Lastly, Carson Laumb did a pencil sketch of Martha, hat and all.
An email was sent to Martha of the slide show and individual pictures. Granddaughter Lisa Archuleta thought it was a cute idea with lovely birthday art. Putting a smile on Martha’s face was the goal of our club.
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