Last week was my husband’s 70th birthday. As a gift for him and our family I decided to put together his life in photos. Seventy is a lot of years and there were a lot of photos needed to represent the journey to this milestone. Oh, and it had to be a secret.

And I work out of my home – an open floor plan. No secrets can be kept here.

I went to Office Cupboard to see if I could find the materials I needed to do the project. There, Michell and Doug let me know that they not only had a space I could work at, they encouraged me to use for as long as I needed to. They made me feel very welcome.

As I worked over the course of several days, trying to track the years by the increasing grey in John’s beard, I met a lot of the Office Cupboard customers. They would stop by the worktable asking questions, reminiscing about their own experiences with this type of project, giving me encouragement, and a few shared some good ideas. At night, when I needed to hide the photo boards until the next day, Michell and Doug proved to be great co-conspirators by giving me the space to store the boards.

I did this project for John and our family, and they did indeed love it. But I think I was the one who really benefitted the most. It was so much fun to do, to trace the years in photos. But even more, it was wonderful because for a few short days I was given space and support and laughter and community to mix in with my rubber cement and double-stick tape to make something really special happen.

Thank you Michell and Doug from me, from John, from our family.

Now, do you have any good ideas of what I should do with the photo boards?

Leslie Ginnes

Eastsound