It’s my uncle’s 70th birthday in the New Year… and he lives in Australia. He is a wonderful gentleman, I can’t say enough about him but I won’t get into it here.  

His daughter, my cousin, Janice, lives in Uganda and decided to whip up a little project. Keep in mind that her idea of a little project and yours or mine may differ. I recall living with her for a short stint on North Street in Halifax (by the bridge, in the hood basically) and she wanted to replace some windows in the house. So she bicycled to the nearest hardware store and picks up the supplies and proceeded to install the windows brilliantly, in my opinion, and with little help from anyone. Anyway, I’ve always respected her girl powers.

So the project she’s putting together this time is a website in honour of her father, Thomas Moore, and has contributions from:
my brother Dan, a teacher, in Indonesia;
my illustrious and talented aunt, Mae Moore, on Pender Island, BC, Canada;
my family including my sons and parents, on PEI, Canada;
my cousin in LA, USA;

and many more… we have each sung Happy Birthday and recorded ourselves on video singing with a jewelry-box sounding background and Janice, in Uganda, has pieced it together into a video to post on the website.

The website also includes a poem which is made up of verses from all of the poems we have sent in, upon direction, using a certain rhyme.

It’s absolutely amazing and my dear uncle will no doubt deeply touched by the efforts and warm wishes  from all. Memories, pictures, videos and poems. What a nice way to celebrate someone.

I’d also like to point out, again, my cousin Janice’s above-average use and grasp of the internet. She recently moved from Myanmar where as you may recall, there was a massive cyclone that killed tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands homeless this past May and devastated the country formerly known as Burma. My mom decided to raise some money after reading a riveting, compelling letter from Janice and sent an email around asking for a small donation that would go to my cousin who was directly helping people re-build their homes and lives. The end result was thousands of dollars coming together and Janice being able to get supplies and money to families who otherwise may have not been helped because of the government’s shocking refusal of outside aid for the critical first few days (and then only limited aid allowed for weeks afterwards). There’s an interesting story here about Myanmar Appeals for Global Aid as Death Toll Rises