Marge Osted has come up with a new way to celebrate a special birthday in this age of Covid-19.
Her husband, Peter Osted, is turning 80 on Aug. 13, and Marge is inviting people to send him birthday wishes – by card, by telephone, on Facebook or just by a greeting when they see him.
"Just to acknowledge that he's having a bi
Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
rthday however they can do that," she said.
Marge said the invitation to offer birthday greetings was prompted by the Covid-19 situation and the restrictions on holding parties.
"It was looking for something different," she said. "Because we didn't know what to do."
Marge noted that one of her ideas was to have a "nice big birthday cake" in the clubroom of the Hay River Seniors' Society.
"You can't do that," she said. "The only way we can serve cake at the Seniors' Society is to have it pre-cut and wrapped in individual pieces. That's not very celebrational."
So she came up with the idea of inviting people to send birthday greetings to Peter, who was a teacher in Hay River for many years until his retirement in 2001.
Marge noted that, every time she and her husband go anywhere, he's greeted by former students.
"Always, always, always," she said. "It just seems like he taught everybody in town. Although the celebration might be difficult, if people know about it they're sure to greet him."
Plus, Peter Osted helped create the Army Cadet Corps in Hay River in 1971 and spent years as its commanding officer.
At first, Marge had hoped to keep the birthday plans a secret from her husband, but realized it would be almost impossible for him not to find out about it.
So she told him on Aug. 5, the same day as an interview with The Hub and when the Osteds' daughter Kate Latour took to Facebook to collect birthday wishes for her father.
"I had been wondering what they were up to because on my 70th birthday they arranged a garden party out back here," said Peter.
And he is fine with his wife's plans to collect birthday wishes for him.
"It will be fun," he said.
The Osteds, who are originally from Winnipeg, first arrived in Hay River in 1966.