When you observe kind and gentle mothers in action, you see women of great strength. (Margaret D Nadavid)

My husband Tom is the son of Tom and Jane Thieme. What I always found really interesting is that both his parents were twins! Jane was an identical twin and Tom Sr. has a twin sister, Josephine Deible, who lives in the Chicago area. Today is the 80th birthday of Tom and Josephine!! We plan to celebrate this festive occasion with a big gathering in Lafayette, and I for one am really looking forward to that event!

Today, I wanted to take a moment to honor Aunt Jo with a little shout out on this rather auspicious occasion. I haven’t spend loads of time with her during my 25 years as a member of the Thieme family, but certainly long enough to tell you what I observe as her defining qualities– she’s both gentle and incredibly kind! A soft-spoken woman with a peaceful temperament, I have always observed her to be an incredibly supportive mother and grandmother. She has a tender and pleasant disposition and she’s clearly crazy about her two children, Christine and Rich, as well as her three amazing grandchildren. Grace, Molly and Sean are most definitely the apples of her eye.

I’m sure today as she celebrates she’s feeling the loss of her husband, Dick, in a rather profound way. That said, her day simply MUST be celebrated in a big way today, because she’s a woman I’ve always thought displayed great strength of character and tremendous integrity— a life worth celebrating large!! Warm-hearted, truly loving women like Aunt Jo are jewels and they are meant to be treasured. I sure hope she feels the love this weekend!

HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY, AUNT JO!